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Evan Bayh won't seek re-election, Senate majority in play?

Updated 2:33 p.m.
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek reelection this year, he announced Monday, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.

"After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned," Bayh said at a press conference in Indianapolis.

Bayh cited the lack of bipartisan comity as one of the main reasons for the decision. "There is too much partisanship and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving," he said. "Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done." He specifically cited the recent vote that killed the creation of a debt commission as evidence of the partisan gridlock.

Bayh was first elected to the Senate in 1998 and was re-elected easily in 2004. National Republicans had recruited former Sen. Dan Coats to challenge Bayh in 2010 although polling suggested Bayh began the race with a 20-point edge. He also had $13 million in the bank at the end of the year.

"My decision was not motivated by political concern," Bayh said. "Even in the current challenging environment, I am confident in my prospects for re-election."

Prior to being in the Senate, Bayh served two terms as governor of the Hoosier State. He also served briefly as Secretary of State.

His retirement is a blow for Senate Democrats who now must legitimately worry about the possibility -- although it remains a longshot today -- that they will lose control of the Senate in the fall.

The Cook Political Report, one of the nation's leading handicappers of congressional elections, now carries 10 Democratic-held seats in its most competitive categories -- meaning that if Republicans sweep those races (and lose none of their own vulnerable seats), they will have a 51-seat majority. Cook, incidentally, moved Indiana from a lean Democratic seat to a lean Republican seat in the wake of the Bayh news.

Bayh's universal name recognition and popularity -- not to mention his massive campaign war chest -- made him a favorite in the fall despite the Republican tilt of the state and the increased focus of national GOP strategists on the contest.

Without Bayh, Democrats may look to their congressional delegation where Reps. Baron Hill, Brad Ellsworth and Joe Donnelly are likely to take a look at running.

Because signatures to qualify for the ballot are due Tuesday, no Democrat will formally file -- leaving the seat vacant and allowing the state party apparatus to choose the candidate.

National Republicans had rallied around Coats in recent days and given the logistical hurdles with the rapidly approaching filing deadline are likely to stick to that plan. "I will continue to run just as hard and take nothing for granted," Coats said in a statement. "I am running so the views and interests of Hoosiers are represented in Washington."

Republican Rep. Mike Pence, who briefly considered running for the seat before deciding against it late last month, removed himself from consideration again today. "Congressman Pence believes that Republicans will retake the House in 2010 and he counts it a privilege to be a part of the House Republican leadership during this historic election," said Matt Lloyd, a spokesman for Pence. "Mr. Pence has filed for re-election to the 6th Congressional District of Indiana and will continue serve his constituents and help lead the effort to retake the House of Representatives."

No matter how the two fields shake out, holding the Indiana seat just got much harder for Democrats. Although President Barack Obama won the Hoosier State narrowly in 2008, it is generally regarded by strategists of both parties as swing territory with a slight edge for Republicans. The national playing field's tilt toward Republicans makes the seat all the tougher for Democrats to hold.

WorldNetDaily.com trumpets “exclusives” reporting that the Army is seeking “Internment/Resettlement” specialists. On ResistNet.com, bloggers warn that Mr. Obama is trying to convert Interpol, the international police organization, into his personal police force. They call on “fellow Patriots” to “grab their guns.”

n the inland Northwest, the Tea Party movement has been shaped by the growing popularity in eastern Washington of Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman from Texas, and by a legacy of anti-government activism in northern Idaho. Outside Sandpoint, federal agents laid siege to Randy Weaver’s compound on Ruby Ridge in 1992, resulting in the deaths of a marshal and Mr. Weaver’s wife and son. To the south, Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Nations, preached white separatism from a compound near Coeur d’Alene until he was shut down.

Local Tea Party groups are often loosely affiliated with one of several competing national Tea Party organizations. In the background, offering advice and organizational muscle, are an array of conservative lobbying groups, most notably FreedomWorks. Further complicating matters, Tea Party events have become a magnet for other groups and causes — including gun rights activists, anti-tax crusaders, libertarians, militia organizers, the “birthers” who doubt President Obama’s citizenship, Lyndon LaRouche supporters and proponents of the sovereign states movement.

On the other hand, we may be seeing a general Democratic collapse in all states where the Republicans can mount a plausible challenger.

All the available data to date suggests that the Democrats have emphatically lost independents. Plus, their leftist base is somewhere between angry at Obama or simply demoralized. And the rank and file Republicans are on the warpath.

Since the overwhelming public anxiety is about jobs and government debt, this is unlikely to change soon.

That's a trend line quite capable of continuing to take down Democrats we thought only weeks ago were in "safe" seats.

"I think the two parties should feel ashamed everytime they go to the doctor or hospital so easily able to get what ever test & meds they or fam. needs while so many are suffering."

I guess we need to all drive the same cars, all live in the same houses, all eat the same foods, all take the same vacations, all own the same TV and computers, and all wear the same clothes.

Because, you know, it's just not right that some people have to wear polyester sweaters while others can wear cashmere.

We should give everyone cashmere sweaters. Cashmere sweaters are a right! No person should feel inferior because he cannot afford cashmere. We desperately need Cashmere Allocation Reform Bill.

Of course, as grownups know, if we gave cashmere sweaters to everyone, whether they paid for them or not, there would soon be no cashmere sweaters left. And we'd all be wearing polyester, and eventually we'd find it hard to get the polyester ones too.

Ditto with healthcare.

There is no free lunch in life. Americans know that and, facing Obama's trillion-dollar deficits for the next ten years, we're in no mood for liberal fantasies that have failed over and over, everywhere they've been tried.

We have a health safety net in this country. It's called Medicaid. We spent hundreds of billions on it. It is accessible, if needed, to every human being in the USA, even to illegal aliens.

But that's not enough for the entitlement seekers.

They don't want a mere safety net.

They want a first-class suite at the Hilton with an unlimited mini-bar, and they want it on our dime--and they seek to make us feel guilty for not giving it.

You guys are right, I forgot about AR. What's Lincoln polling at right now? 35%? 30%? Last I heard she was down by 20 points to Boozeman. Washington and Wisconsin will be tough. The only way I really see those seats go down is if the incumbents have a George Allen-like meltdown.

The only way had to pass their healthcare "reform" bill was to wrap inside a 2000-page shell of mumble-jumble.

If they had, as you suggest, simply called for extending Medicare to everyone, it would not have passed the House, would have had no chance to pass the Senate, and it would have set the senior citizens of the country into the streets with Molotov Cocktails.

So they had to dress it up with all sorts of gimmickry and subterfuge and try to ram it through before anyone, outside the bill's authors, understand what was in it.

"Medicare for all" is the public option on the steroids, of course. And the public option never had a chance even to get 50 votes in the U.S. Senate. Never.

So, yes, while it would have been a more honest approach to propose something like that, it would have lost even more emphatically than the proposed version lost.

After all, Medicare and Medicaid are financial basket cases, and everyone knows that. They have tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities. They are the principal reasons the credit of the United States will be impaired in coming years. They are mismanaged. Doctors are leaving them in droves because of it.

Adding to them is only a "good idea" in the fantasyland of liberal dreams.

I am glad he is gone! Evan in my oppinion was a part of the problem not hot not cold just flaky holding the needs of the people while he and his family enjoy all the things that were promised to the those who are without healthcare. If the dems only knew what they were doing to these people while they pussycat along playing with lives. I think the two parties should feel ashamed everytime they go to the doctor or hospital so easily able to get what ever test & meds they or fam. needs while so many are suffering.
What happen to just doing the right thing as in my everyday life not having even close to what these politicians have I make decision that are not always in my best interest if it is the right thing to do and it is never right to stand by and see any human being go without healthcare, food, water or shelter when you are in power to resolve it. Goodbayh!

GOP take ND, DE, IN, PA, NV, CO. IL is looking good with the GOP nominating their best candidate and the Dems nominating a terrible candidate. Thats 7 seats. All the GOP open seats look good with OH looking a little shaky. Not enough for the majority, but in 2012 and 2014, thats when they can take back the majority. In 2012, Caskill, Tester, Webb, Ben and Bill Nelson are all up for re-election. They all voted for Obamacare and voters will have an opportunity to hold them accountable for their votes.

There was no particular reason why, instead of a 1000 page monstrosity from hell HR 3200, that Congress could not have simply expanded the Medicare program as a basis for national healthcare. But that would have been too uncomplicated- Bayh was for burying Americans under more crushing, confusing laws, just as he had been a leading proponent for dragging us into the 2002 Gulf War, and a dozen other morasses which are bankrupting the nation. When he speaks, the phony, cloying language could as easily be coming from John Edwards. Good riddance to this other Pretty Boy. Congress could use a few more plain looking but hard working types such as Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul

"They say he's good at speeches, and ends most of his speeches like a pep rally or the end of the MLK speech "I have a dream", where he got the listeners excited about the future. Dr. King was a genius and gave his speeches for the right reasons. Obamas imitations are sounding hollow now."

Martin Luther King bled and suffered to earn his Nobel medal.

Barack Obama did not.

Martin Luther King could listen.

Barack Obama chooses not to listen.

Martin Luther King used his oratorical gifts in the service of a great cause.

Barack Obama uses his much dimmer oratorical gifts only in the service of his own ambitions.

Martin Luther King wrote about jail cells and the injustice of Jim Crow.

Barack Obama wrote two books about himself, a life spent bouncing from one political job to the next, always seeking a promotion but never leaving much of an impact at anything he did.

Martin Luther King led and preached in churches dedicated to Jesus Christ above all.

Barack Obama spent more than ten years going to and supporting a church whose sermons are infamous for their obscene calumnies against the country Dr. King loved.

Martin Luther King was a great man.

Barack Obama is not..

because greatness does not come from giving speeches. It does not come from winning office. It does not come from being smart.

Greatness, as King would have agreed, is an incident of character.

After one year in office, what is Mr. Obama's character?

How many promises has he kept?

How many has he broken?

Right or Center or Left, all honest people must agree that Obama has shown that his word means little, that his promise is always tenuous, that when pushes comes to shove he will abandon his principle.

When King said something, he meant it and he put his very life behind it.

When Obama says something, your first thought is to wonder if he means it or for how long he will stand by it.

SEN. LAUTENBERG FALLS, IS HOSPITALIZED, SAME DAY AS BAYH ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT. JUST A STRANGE COINCIDENCE?

Did someone on the dark side order a microwave hit on 86-yeear-old Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to cause his fall and hospitalization -- perhaps precipitating a shift in the Senate balance of power even before Bayh retires? Or could such a thing just never happen in the USA?

The Senate is by no means even close to having the majority switch - however at this point a path is in sight - that is alot more than when one thought there really was no way the Republicans could take the majority.

Obama really messed up this time.

The independents have departed - on the midnight train.. and they are not coming back.

It is really time for the democrats in Congress to tell Obama that they are NOT going to take the anger for him.

The democrats in Congress can either stand up to Obama and get him to resign - or face a massacre this fall in which they could lose ALL their leadership positions, and all their committee chairmanships.

Why should Obama be the only one left standing when it is all his fault.

"Actually the framers of the Constitution envisioned a rebellion throughout the country from time to time - like the Whiskey Rebellion.
Posted by: 37thand0street"

Which is why they installed protections from rebellions taking over government immediately but over a number of years of sustained, popular, national rebellion.
Heck, Pelosi and Obama's far left agenda hasn't even captured the support of moderate Democrats.

Worse than than. 37th seems determined to put the hex on Obama. Maybe the Dems will have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Obama, or take him out into the back alley nad do the sucker punch, or do the jonestown koolaid thingy, or some other such fantasy. Every post from 37th is first hex, then pure pleasure.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D) of Indiana, however, is the exception. His stunning retirement from the Senate is essentially a loud and emphatic “screw you” to President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. For months now, Bayh has been screaming at the top of his voice that the party needs to reorient toward a more popular, centrist agenda -- one that emphasizes jobs and fiscal responsibility over health care and cap and trade. Neither the White House nor the Senate leadership has given him the response he wanted. Their bungling of what should have been a routine bipartisan jobs bill last week seems to have been the last straw.

Hopefully the blizzards have put an end to the Cap and Trade b.s. bill that would allow electric companies to hike our rates (and already have). Now maybe they can give us back the money they took from us DURING TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES. bad move for democrats.

It appears the GOP will attend the healthcare summit. Hopefully they will not get suckered into a show, but will have the opportunity to air opposition and make progress by either convincing America to kill the bill and start over with transparency, or drop the pork deals, kickbacks and the abortion provision on the current bill.

As far as the Jobs bill goes, we need to increase the amount to at least 85billion.. Reids scaleback to 15billion wouldn't do much to help us get back to work.

A second stimulas needs to be transparent and aimed at the middle class. It also needs to substantial so we dont end up getting mere tax cuts, or 100 dollar checks.

The community bank lending program needs more than the 30billion proposed by Obama, but it is a good idea. Not that i like to re-distribute wealth, but the big banks used us, its time for them to pay up and help get our credit markets open.

The democrats are in trouble for sure. Their failed policies and forcefeeding us bills in the middle of the night didn't sit well with me or ANYONE I know. Even friends of mine that voted for Obama are very dissapointed and wouldn't vote the same way again. They say he's good at speeches, and ends most of his speeches like a pep rally or the end of the MLK speech "I have a dream", where he got the listeners excited about the future. Dr. King was a genius and gave his speeches for the right reasons. Obamas imitations are sounding hollow now.

From reading dejectedly through some of the comments here, I can certainly understand why Sen. Bayh is retiring. I wonder how many of the raging extremists on this board realize, even dimly, that they (and their cronies in Congress) are the reason Bayh is fed up?

Fact: We are in a horrific financial mess, aided and abetted by both parties. Some of the wingnuts here must honestly believe that we independents haven't been paying attention for the last decade. We watched the right start the inferno and the left pour gasoline on it. What on earth makes you think that by blaming the other party, we'll forget your side's role in this national nightmare?

Taxes must go up. Social spending must go down. Entitlements must be cut. Military spending must be cut. Public sector workers must become much more productive on much less compensation, not to mention becoming much fewer, period. Don't even THINK of adding a new entitlement to the mix at the present time. We won't even bring up the farce of cap-and-trade.

Day care is over, kiddies. We need adults to dig ourselves out of this hole, and it doesn't seem like too many of you qualify. Thus, siddown and shaddap for the next 10 years. When we independents and non-ideologues get the country fiscally sound again, you can go back to screaming at one another over peripheral issues like AGW, abortion, card check, gay marriage, health care, and whether Rush Limbaugh or Michael Moore is the biggest idiot. 'Kay?

lcarter0311 what difference does it make how much Bayh's wife makes? Being a democrat and not a socialist seems to be Bayh's biggest determent to you loons.

Posted by: devildogdon | February 15, 2010 8:56 PM

~~~

Who gives a crap about how much money she makes. The problem is the industry in which she made the money. If HC reform had not been such a hot political topic over the last year no one would be paying attention.

Bayh has stated that her BOD positions is not a conflict of interest with his decision making on HC reform.

Unfortunately, there are many people on both the right and the left who would beg to differ.

"12BB, he's black and reddish tan. About 90 lbs. Yep, I'll be on the other end, but I weigh only 130 lbs. It will be hard for me to hold him back. Just say "Obama sucks" if you walk by and everything will be fine."

This has got to the most moronic post I have read recently. The dog is walking her, and as for sucking, she sounds like that would be her only virtue.

If it weren't for the progressives, there wouldn't be a middle class, just rich and poor.
All of the laws protecting women and children from labor exploitation, voting rights for women and African americans, environmental protection, social security, medicare, the G.I. bill for education and much more would be non-existent. The only thing bad about progressives is their tendency to think that these hard won rights can't be taken away. Right wing extremists unknowingly would like to put us into a corporate feudalism similar to that of China. Who would like to work for 5000 dollars a year?

Evan Bayh is a "Blue Dog" Democrat. He is a Democrat in name only representing a Red State.

His wife sits on the Board of several Insurance companies, as many as 8 in 2008. Between 2006 and 2008 she earned approx., 2.1 million. One of those companies is Wellpoint, which is a subsidiary of Blue Cross Anthem, who just recently wanted to raise the insurance premiums in CA., to 39%.

Bayh has been getting hit hard by both Tea Bagger's and Die Hard Liberal HC Reformers.

Bayh's resignation is not about President Obama, it's about Bayh and his two faced political stance.

Thanks for the heads up. What does Titus look like so I'll be on the watch? Will you be on the other end of the leash?

Posted by: 12BarBlues | February 15, 2010 7:48 PM

12BB, he's black and reddish tan. About 90 lbs. Yep, I'll be on the other end, but I weigh only 130 lbs. It will be hard for me to hold him back. Just say "Obama sucks" if you walk by and everything will be fine.

Posted by: SuzyCcup | February 15, 2010 8:20 PM
----------------------------------
Thanks for the description. It's important to know which end of the leash is the junkyard dawg. Bark when you walk by.

Posted by: 12BarBlues | February 15, 2010 8:38 PM

Like I said, all you have to do is say "Obama sucks" as you walk buy and he'll leave your gonads in tact (if you have any). Easy!

Thanks for the heads up. What does Titus look like so I'll be on the watch? Will you be on the other end of the leash?

Posted by: 12BarBlues | February 15, 2010 7:48 PM

12BB, he's black and reddish tan. About 90 lbs. Yep, I'll be on the other end, but I weigh only 130 lbs. It will be hard for me to hold him back. Just say "Obama sucks" if you walk by and everything will be fine.

Posted by: SuzyCcup | February 15, 2010 8:20 PM
----------------------------------
Thanks for the description. It's important to know which end of the leash is the junkyard dawg. Bark when you walk by.

I just heard rumors that Barbara Mikulski (sp?) is considering not running. Not a guaranteed Republican pickup (it is Maryland afterall) but damn....I don't think this is the "hope and change" you all were expecting.

This Congress, as a whole, has lost credibility. We should be the last ones to talk about how other countries run business when we cannot govern ourselves. We criticize rouge governments in Third World Countries and yet we got people who want to see this President fail. Hell, it does not sound any different how we do things here versus radicals do in their countries when they subvert their so-called governments and leadership, willing to sacrifice anything to get their point across. People across the World are laughing at us right now. They see how divided and polarized we are and cannot handle our business.

Thanks for the heads up. What does Titus look like so I'll be on the watch? Will you be on the other end of the leash?

Posted by: 12BarBlues | February 15, 2010 7:48 PM

12BB, he's black and reddish tan. About 90 lbs. Yep, I'll be on the other end, but I weigh only 130 lbs. It will be hard for me to hold him back. Just say "Obama sucks" if you walk by and everything will be fine.

Evan's departure is bittersweet. He is one of just a few Democrat Senators with the brains and introspection to see that most of his party's Progressive approach to government is seriously and dangerously flawed.

However, a stalemated government is an improvement over what we've seen under Obama so far, so bring it on.

Senator Bayh is right; he can better serve outside of Congress. It is very restrictive. As a private citizen he can get his points across in many ways as Sarah Palin is demonstrating since leaving her office as governor of Alaska.

He is upset about the power to pass President Obama's jobs bills etc, not realizing it would continue the destructive employment lifestyle that is polluting our air, land, water and food making us a diseased planet of diseased animals and people. The better solution instead of a jobs program or Health Insurance or Health Care Reform for President Obama is to back us out of the employment lifestyle that creates all world problems and turn us toward a garden paradise lifestyle that solves them quickly, easily and inexpensively. It is the only sustainable lifestyle. I hope Senator Bayh will re-evaluate his position on these issues.

This story is really funny. The democrats now have to worry about losing control of the senate. When in hell did they ever have control of it? Because of the filibuster rule, they had to appease the number one voice of insurance greed, Joe Lieberman. Baucus bent over backwards so far for republicans that what came out of his committee was unpalatable for the house of representatives, which is the only true voice of the people. It makes no difference in November if the democrats lose five senate seats or a dozen because the filibuster rule will keep it deadlocked for purposes of legislation benefiting the average citizen.

You wrote: "What is it that we need to impress upon the current admin: IT IS the ECONOMY, STUPID... NOT Healtcare and Cap and Trade."

Ironically, Obama could have robust economic growth tomorrow (as well as save his party from huge losses in Nov) if he would say the following:

"My fellow Americans: I made some rookie mistakes as president. I approved too much spending and tried to control the economy too much. But I learned from my mistakes, so I am announcing that I will not sign any healthcare reform bill or cap and trade unless both parties approve it. In addition, since the stimulus bill is evidently not working, I am asking Congress to cancel the remaining spending in that bill and also to shut down TARP today."

If he did that, he would remove the uncertainty from the US economy, freeing it for a surge, and he would just about guarantee himself reelection.

It will never happen, of course, because Obama's political umbilical cord is inextricably attached to his left-wing base--and they would go absolutely berzerk.

Clinton could make that pivot, as he did in 1995, but not Obama. Obama is too callow, too messianic, too arrogant. He lacks Clinton's insight and experience and realism.

I think Obama believes himself so special that he transcends political realities. Thus, he is inexorably destroying his party.

No surprise here. He and his fellow Democrats are all wimps. The Democrats on the Hill are full of sh*t. And for the Republicans and Independents, they are like those people who go to school only just to show up in class, BS around all day, anti-accomplishing assignments, and not doing a damn thing. These are the people we put in office to speak for us and the country. Talk about tax dollars being wasted, Congress are leading example of government wasteful spending. I'm not one who agree with the Tea-Baggers, but they do have one good point GET RID OF CONGRESS, PERIOD!!

I live in NYC but have a summer home in rural Gulf Coast (FL/AL/MS) and I am saddened by the number of store fronts on Madison Ave between 59th and 84th (>10%) because of the depression in NYC. My family is unemployed 25%.

What is it that we need to impress upon the current admin: IT IS the ECONOMY, STUPID... NOT Healtcare and Cap and Trade.

My gosh, we need business and not political geniuses to get us out of this hole.

The current Admin does not have the creds to do this and are proving it daily.

I live in NYC but have a summer home in rural Gulf Coast (FL/AL/MS) and I am saddened by the number of store fronts on Madison Ave between 59th and 84th (>10%) because of the depression in NYC. My family is unemployed 25%.

What is it that we need to impress upon the current admin: IT IS the ECONOMY, STUPID... NOT Healtcare and Cap and Trade.

My gosh, we need business and not political geniuses to get us out of this hole.

The current Admin does not have the creds to do this and are proving it daily.

You are correct about the intent of the Founders with respect to the Senate.

We can also see their distrust of popular passions in the Constitution's electoral college and in the independent and co-equal judiciary. The Founders explicitly created our system in such a way that a mere majority of legislators did not, by itself, wield unchecked power.

We also see it in the recognition and explicit safeguarding of state sovereignty in most areas of governance.

In fact, through and through, the Constitution is a document designed to bind the federal government tightly.

The Senate filibuster is in the same spirit. If you cannot get 60 Senators to agree on major new domestic policy, it's probably not a good idea.

It's just one more way to bind the beast and make change, if it happens, come only slowly, once the whole people have had a chance to consider it prudentially and deliberately and openly over time.

Obama and Pelosi tried to rush their healthcare "reform" through before anyone--including the legislators themselves--could even read it.

7 billion of that is from rewriting the bio-fuel tax credit which has nothing to do with health care. It was included by Rep. Van Hollen (D-MD) to bring down the cost of the HCR bill.
Now it's stuck in the HCR bill for months on end while millions of tax dollars are lost to abuses of the tax credit.

SARileyMan wrote: "As a conservative, I am naturally mistrustful of government. I like checks and balances. Two robust parties sharing power is indeed a vital check, but only as long as both those parties have at least one foot in the center."

Agreed. Problem these days is that the leadership of both parties are far from the center, and the rank-and-file members are forced to follow their leadership in lockstep rather than exercise their own independent judgment. The few centrists in Congress hold little sway, and are vilified by their own parties.

How to come together in this environment, where neither side is willing to compromise and meet in the middle? Ideally, a balance of power would lead to compromise and more centrist government. Seems like both parties would rather try their luck at achieving complete control to enact their doctrine in its pure form.

My hope is that a significant third party (preferably, for me, one founded on fiscal conservativism and social libertarianism) would break the logjam and force action on our pressing problems. A pipe dream, I know.

12BarBlues nothing special. 1978-1985 Stationed at MCAS El Toro, got out joined the army guard to pay for school. As for interesting stories, what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico.

Posted by: devildogdon | February 15, 2010 7:21 PM
--------------------------------
Yeah, it's really important that you DO leave it in Mexico and not bring it back with you. You got that right! LOL.

I've only been really afraid twice in my life.

The first time is when 4 guys were creeping up on my stalled car in the Montana mountains.

The second was when one of those BIG, BLACK attack helicopters rose up with ALL their BIG, BLACK guns aimed right into the second floor "fake town" on Pendleton. Did I say I was standing in the window. I'll bet those young marines are still laughing at my white face with my BIG eyes. First time I really understood that something like that could actually paralyze a person with fear.

"A super majority of 60 votes to enact legislation was never what the framers of the constitution intended...
Posted by: Citi__Street"

"The framers of the constitution never intended socialism either.
Posted by: SuzyCcup"

Actually, the framers of the Constitution envisioned radical populism to sweep through the country and aim to rewrite American law and traditions. To slow down that process to a reasonable pace, they created the Senate.
The filibuster may not be found in the Constitution, but merely in its continuing rules. The filibuster comes from the tradition of the English parliament and Roman Senate our legislative bodies were based on.
Use of the filibuster to slow or stop radical agendas is exactly what our founders intended.

citistreet wrote- The Senate is broken because control of this body is dictated by a 41% minority of whichever party due to the overuse of the filibuster or poison pill rule!

A super majority of 60 votes to enact legislation was never what the framers of the constitution intended. So, it wouldn't be such a bad idea for the GOP to win back control of the Senate with a 51% majority.

This basically guarantees gridlock and make the party of "NO" answerable to the electorate in 2012 in what most likely will be another wave in the opposite direction.
----------------------------------------
How do you know what the framers wanted? Did you just become concerned with the 41% minority or just that it currently suits your political needs?

citistreet wrote- The Senate is broken because control of this body is dictated by a 41% minority of whichever party due to the overuse of the filibuster or poison pill rule!

A super majority of 60 votes to enact legislation was never what the framers of the constitution intended. So, it wouldn't be such a bad idea for the GOP to win back control of the Senate with a 51% majority.

This basically guarantees gridlock and make the party of "NO" answerable to the electorate in 2012 in what most likely will be another wave in the opposite direction.
----------------------------------------
How do you know what the framers wanted? Did you just become concerned with the 41% minority or just that it currently suits your political needs?

It sounds to me as if Bayh is just tired. I don't blame him. Surely there would something more productive to do than to serve in the incompetent and dysfunctional senate.

The middle class is dying out here. Meanwhile the Republicans are successfully shilling for the rich, and the Democrats (even when they the first 'super majority' in years) are incapable of getting anything done.

"The only thing that has seemed to work recently is a split government, like during part of the Clinton years. When either party is in charge they tend to go nuts trying to stuff their ideological agenda down the country's throat."

You make a point valid on many levels.

As a conservative, I am naturally mistrustful of government. I like checks and balances. Two robust parties sharing power is indeed a vital check, but only as long as both those parties have at least one foot in the center.

Bayh's departure means the Democrats are less centrist. That's not good for them, or for America.

I came to know some Korean era marines (d-2-5), front line experiences, some officers, mostly enlisted. What a great bunch of guys, what humility, how moving they are. Went to Division reunions, got treated by USMC on Pendleton for war exercises I'll NEVER forget.

If Obama becomes another "failed" Democratic President, it won't be because he's black or because of the Republicans, Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. It will be because he's a Democrat in the tradition of LBJ and Jimmy Carter. So far, he's failing. I wonder if his library or Bush's library will be less popular?

"Sounds like some of you Republican nitwits are actually praying that the government of the United States will become completely incapacitated. You folks are doing your level best to destroy the country. But hey, COUNTRY FIRST! right?"

Only a liberal would think the "country" is the same thing as the government.

Most Americans, thankfully, see the country as much larger and more precious than the government. We indeed see the government as only a necessary evil. As such, we do not mind if it "fails" to work for a time if its "success" would mean, in the view of most Americans, the enactment of harmful and destructive policies.

We are content to let the government fail until we, as the sovereign, replace those in it with people whose idea of "progress" is more in line with our own.

After all, the government belongs to the people. The people do not belong to the government.

Liberals, on the other hand, see the government as a sort of secular god to which they seek our forced consecration in its service in order to carry out their peculiar visions.

Bayh is a wimpo: No guts! His departure will hurt the Dems but someone in Indiana will surely come forth. Obama and the congress needs to conjure up a very strong jobs bill and put the workers in Indiana to work, thus creating the opportunity for election of the Dem to replace this DINO.

Bayh is a wimpo: No guts! His departure will hurt the Dems but someone in Indiana will surely come forth. Obama and the congress needs to conjure up a very strong jobs bill and put the workers in Indiana to work, thus creating the opportunity for election of the Dem to replace this DINO.

SARileyMan wrote: "I'd rather work to bring the two admittedly wayward parties back in line with fiscal sanity before the fiscal insanity causes a country-ruining calamity. Given the histories involved, it is much more likely to bring the Republicans back into line in this regard than the Democrats."

The only thing that has seemed to work recently is a split government, like during part of the Clinton years. When either party is in charge they tend to go nuts trying to stuff their ideological agenda down the country's throat.

The thing is, according to most independent experts, fixing our fiscal mess will require some combination of raising taxes and cuts to entitlements. Each party is vehemently opposed to an aspect of the solution.

I was hoping for some compromise...but instead all we have is a stalemate since each party has had enough power to thwart the part they find unacceptable. Neither party will go it alone, so both parties have to take the leap together. Sorry, can't see that happening...maybe even less likely given the partisan animosity in DC than a emergent third party.

Anyway, if we get fiscal responsibility we'll probably both be happy...no matter how it occurs.

The Senate is broken because control of this body is dictated by a 41% minority of whichever party due to the overuse of the filibuster or poison pill rule!

A super majority of 60 votes to enact legislation was never what the framers of the constitution intended. So, it wouldn't be such a bad idea for the GOP to win back control of the Senate with a 51% majority.

This basically guarantees gridlock and make the party of "NO" answerable to the electorate in 2012 in what most likely will be another wave in the opposite direction.

Sounds like some of you Republican nitwits are actually praying that the government of the United States will become completely incapacitated. You folks are doing your level best to destroy the country. But hey, COUNTRY FIRST! right?

You allow your countrymen to die needlessly by not providing basic healthcare to the working man, while insurance rates go up 30-50x the cost of living.
In visiting, I can't remember the number of times I saw homeless on the streets, met with soldiers who could not get treatment for their mental illness, had horrible experiences in your veterans hospitals, and HOW YOU ARE ASHAMED to show the arrival of slain soldiers arriving home from their last service overseas. YOU HIDE THEM ashamed that you send young people to die for a cause that is wrong.

Evan Bayh stopped the meglamaniac Democratic party from totally ruining the country. Even if nothing happens for the next three years, it will be better for our country than if Obamaism had been forced on the country. Prayer works. God listens. Gridlock is a godsend.

"Hey, Democrats: O-B-A-M-A spells bankruptcy. BYE-BYE DEMOCRATS."
Posted by: kstobbe1 | February 15, 2010 6:37 PM
==
Oh, yeah, kstobbe1?
Is that so?
Well, G-O-P spells war-mongering total financial ruin and a sellout to China.
You can deny that if you wish, but that doesn't change the fact that it's true.
GOP can't govern.
They're too busy sucking up to their corporate dictators.
In 8 years, they RUINED this country.

This is from the House Ways and Means committee, and it's a pro-reform summary of the insurance exchanges. That is, it's a document designed to put the program into the most politically acceptable light. Mind you, this document is also from a Democratic chairman of that committee.

Notice that it says those who cannot afford insurance will receive "affordability credits" for it. Those are tax credits--ie, someone else's money paid from the government. These credits will go up to incomes to about $88K.

In other words, many if not most of the policies through the exchange will be government subsidized.

That is clearly and conclusively "government funded." Where do you think the credits come from? A money tree in Obama's backyard?

Moreover, you will also note the part in the summary about the "standardized benefit packages."

Who do you think will determine the content and the benefit packages?

That's right: the government.

And since the government defines and pays for the benefit, it will eventually determine the price of it. This has been the case with virtually every government-run health care system on earth.

But don't take my word for it. Look at the Ways and Means document. You will note on this one-page document the promise to "cap" premiums. You cannot cap premiums in insurance without also capping the benefits. Again, this is the government managing the price. It could not be clearer.

To recap: the government would define the product, the government would in large part pay for the product, and the government would oversee the product.

For most people--if not for you--those things add up to "government run."

BTW, Bayh's a wuss. No way is he anything like his father, a man who had principles and didn't try to please everybody. Bayh tries to please repubs so much he waits until the last minute to leave the race instead of giving someone else a chance to get a campaign started. The Dems are beter off without him. There's a time to be bi-partisan, but when the other side constantly does nothing and lies to you, it's time to go with the party that brought you.

And the first priority of the new Republican majority will be to undo the bank bailout and reset the clock to around September 2008?

Not a chance. Republicans do not want to be blamed for a Greater Great Greatest Depression. So in short they approve of the original bank bailouts. Otherwise, they would want to set the banks back in the same position they were in before the bailouts.

Just love these rightwing haters on here. Theyh can never admit that bush-cheney totally messed up this country. Yheir hatred for a Black president shows up in so many ways. They just can't frame it that way, so they use other words. Poor souls. Tell me what 8 years of repub leadership(?) did besides bankrupting us and almost leading to a dictatorship and a repub party devoid of any ideas. Go head,righties, name something good the gop has done for this country in the last 9 years. You guys want repuns in charge agains, why? You like $5 gas, more bank buyouts (yeah, bush did them), more lowering of middle class incomes, more tax breaks for the top 1%? Some country you hope for.

Let's hope Bayh runs for president. I'm a registered independent but I'd register as a dem in a minute to vote for Bayh in a primary if he ran against Obama. I'm reasonably comfortable that Obama's radical leftist agenda will be blunted in November but it will take a better president to undo his executive orders and federal hiring spree.

"Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done."
-- Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN)
==
Our nation is in great peril right now.
There is a loud and vocal minority raging out in the countryside fixated on vilification and, if we are not careful, we are going to elect a pile of political prostitutes who will make this current Congress look like a convention of saints.
So often, I hear the comment:
"I vote for the man, never mind the party."
Well, that's easy to say, but how can you be sure about the man's integrity?
Powerful special interests move in to fund the campaign and the candidate is captured, whether he wants to admit it or not.
Once in Congress, the party dictates votes.
A newly-elected member can claim independence all he wants to, he's incapable of getting attention for any legislation he wants to pass, unless he supports his majority or minority leadership.
Their stands on legislation are determined by the needs of the party for money looking forward to the next election.
Considering the current climate, to elect the party that plunged the nation into this morass and put them back into office is insane, but that appears to be the possible outcome of the 2010 election.
The despicable hatred of each side for the other is stunning.
No wonder.
Bayh has had enough.
I understand completely.

Ker-flush! Another Dumbocrat goes down the drain. Hey Barry, why don't you try to take over a few more industries before November. One funny thing though... what happened to all those stories about the GOP being "over with" and down to a "regional party of racists"... Haven't seen too many of those stories lately. I did see a spot-on story in the Post about the arrogance of liberals.

After all Obama/Dems prove how there is little real difference between Dems and Reps.

That is Obama/Democrats prove how right-wing Democrats are, which means how they act for the benefit of Rich and Big corporations (Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Military, etc.) and NOT for the benefit of American people (Middle class) and thus what Utter Complete Lunatics Republicans are who are even to the right of the Dems.

"Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done."

The politicians and media will spin this story to make it all about the political fallout, and who picks up what vote. The REAL story, which is what Bayh has to say about our Congress and electorate, will quietly slide under the radar. Back to business as usual.

I wouldn't want to serve the people of your country either. Your government is so dysfunctional, and the people of AMERICA so mean and vicious, ignorant and boorish, you deserve to watch your government go down in flames.

What has your country done for its people lately???
You praise the formation of a democracy in IRAQ, which is as non-functional as your own. You tried to set up assistance in AFGHANISTAN and they want to PUSH WOMEN's rights back a few hundred years.

You allow your countrymen to die needlessly by not providing basic healthcare to the working man, while insurance rates go up 30-50x the cost of living.
In visiting, I can't remember the number of times I saw homeless on the streets, met with soldiers who could not get treatment for their mental illness, had horrible experiences in your veterans hospitals, and HOW YOU ARE ASHAMED to show the arrival of slain soldiers arriving home from their last service overseas. YOU HIDE THEM ashamed that you send young people to die for a cause that is wrong.

AMERICA is not a powerful nation. You are a group of selfish, self-indulgent low class undereducated peoples who THINK you are all that but are really LOSERS>

obama -reid -pelosi-gore -dean and the rest of the ulta left think that they were elected for their beliefs.they were elected on a anyone but bush ticket.after one year of obama and company even the middle of road dems dont want any thing to do with the fruit .nut and flak core

I wouldn't want to serve the people of your country either. Your government is so dysfunctional, and the people of AMERICA so mean and vicious, ignorant and boorish, you deserve to watch your government go down in flames.

What has your country done for its people lately???
You praise the formation of a democracy in IRAQ, which is as non-functional as your own. You tried to set up assistance in AFGHANISTAN and they want to PUSH WOMEN's rights back a few hundred years.

You allow your countrymen to die needlessly by not providing basic healthcare to the working man, while insurance rates go up 30-50x the cost of living.
In visiting, I can't remember the number of times I saw homeless on the streets, met with soldiers who could not get treatment for their mental illness, had horrible experiences in your veterans hospitals, and HOW YOU ARE ASHAMED to show the arrival of slain soldiers arriving home from their last service overseas. YOU HIDE THEM ashamed that you send young people to die for a cause that is wrong.

AMERICA is not a powerful nation. You are a group of selfish, self-indulgent low class undereducated peoples who THINK you are all that but are really LOSERS>

I wouldn't want to serve the people of your country either. Your government is so dysfunctional, and the people of AMERICA so mean and vicious, ignorant and boorish, you deserve to watch your government go down in flames.

What has your country done for its people lately???
You praise the formation of a democracy in IRAQ, which is as non-functional as your own. You tried to set up assistance in AFGHANISTAN and they want to PUSH WOMEN's rights back a few hundred years.

You allow your countrymen to die needlessly by not providing basic healthcare to the working man, while insurance rates go up 30-50x the cost of living.
In visiting, I can't remember the number of times I saw homeless on the streets, met with soldiers who could not get treatment for their mental illness, had horrible experiences in your veterans hospitals, and HOW YOU ARE ASHAMED to show the arrival of slain soldiers arriving home from their last service overseas. YOU HIDE THEM ashamed that you send young people to die for a cause that is wrong.

AMERICA is not a powerful nation. You are a group of selfish, self-indulgent low class undereducated peoples who THINK you are all that but are really LOSERS>

You wrote: "But do we return to the Republicans, who just finished running our country into the ditch? My answer is no, we need another alternative."

First, no one is arguing that we trade in Obama's mismanagement for Bush's. I reject this dichotomy as false.

Second, this sounds like you're suggesting a new political party. Good luck with that.

As for me, I'd rather work to bring the two admittedly wayward parties back in line with fiscal sanity before the fiscal insanity causes a country-ruining calamity.

Given the histories involved, it is much more likely to bring the Republicans back into line in this regard than the Democrats. The Democrats are historically much too invested in Big Government to offer any real chance of reform.

The Democrats, under Obama, have undermined their credibility on fiscal responsibility for a generation. Unless Obama is himself repudiated by other Democrats in a meaningful way--as many Republicans have with Bush's excesses--the taint will last longer than that.

Unless and until that happens, the Democrats have not just become fiscally irresponsible. They have become irredeemable fiscal lunatics.

All Bayh was anyway was a Republican A## kisser He did not help the Dem's with health-care reform because his wife makes big bucks on her job for a healthcare provider. The Problem with the Democrats is that their spineless gutless cowards they have no back bone so they let Republicans dictate policy, and that's pretty stupid because the Republicans don't have a policy THE NAME OF THIS GAME DUMB DEMOCRATS IS 51 VOTES STUPIT

In the same way that it took 4 years of liberal governing by a incompetent Democrap Socialist moron like Jimmy Carter, to give us 12 years of Republican administrations, so too will the Democrap Socialist moron Barack Obama succeed in doing the same. And he may possible be even better for us Republicans by convincing the American people that it's dangerous to elect these Communist--thinking loons. The already failed Obama administration, will probably usher in a Republican administration, and another, and another, and another. Thank you Obama and Democrap Socialists, for proving how incompetent and stupid one must be to be a member of your party.

Other than knowing about the bribes some democratic senators took in exchange for their vote on health care, we know nothing else about exactly the kind of "persuasion" that was used "behind closed doors" to get all 60 votes. We know about the bribes, but we don't know about possible threats. A lot of senators can look at that process and decide whether or not they want to spend any more years in the senate to continue facing the "persuasive" tactics they have just experienced.

Filibusters have nothing to do with the American people. They have everything to do with partisan politics. In fact, the American people have very little say in today's current political climate. The inertia of two parties hating on each other produces gridlock. On almost every bill, both sides vote the party bloc.

If Obama or Bill Clinton were killed tomorrow there would be glee in Republican America. And just the opposite, if Cheney or Bush were killed, Democrats would jump for joy.

Rumors following Senator Bayh's abrupt decision...he is absolutely 'steamed' (you can use your adjective) from the verbal diatribe delivered by President Obama's WH staff following the recent Democrat retreat. As you may recall, Sen. Bayh questioned the Democratic Party's continued use of the old tax/spend playbook. After the retreat, WH senior staff went into complete war room mode against Bayh.

Bayh basically has told the President and the Party to stuff it. There is only one day left to register for the primary ballot. The leading candidate is a wacko, independent Bloomington resident who still lives in the 60's.

This will be a walk for the Republicans in November. You just have to thank the President for not being able to take any criticism. Sounds like a college professor who can not take it when one of his 'students' critiques his work.

President Barack Obama inherited a country devastated by 8 years of Republican maladministration and madness, no foreign enemy could have inflicted the level of damage on the United States as delivered by Bush / Cheney and the Republicans. Now as Mr Obama struggles with the horrendously difficult task of righting the America's ship of state, he will need strong support both in the house and senate to get the country back on it's feet.

Evan Bayh's retirement is a good thing.

As a less than loyal Democrat, he could not be relied upon to provide the support required to pass the President's campaign agenda when it counted. In many of his positions on issues, he looked more like a Republican than a Democrat. War mongering Republicans have had their chance, and in the process they destroyed the entire economy with their flawed ideas. If Americans want a decent future they need to rally in support of Barack Obama in his efforts to get things back on a sound footing once again. And it will take many years.

SARileyMan, as I said, I basically agree with your criticisms of Democrats today. They have missed their opportunity to run the government responsibly.

But do we return to the Republicans, who just finished running our country into the ditch? My answer is no, we need another alternative.

Also, while entitlement programs were implemented under Democrats, their stewardship was controlled by both parties at various times. Who is responsible for the state they are in now? The fault is spread over both parties, but they are in a sorry state and need fixing. Where might these programs be if they, and the rest of our fiscal situation, were better managed over the past few decades? Don't know exactly, but they would definitely be in better shape.

You have to read all the books, not just those that reinforce your predetermined viewpoint. These are complicated issues that don't lend themselves to the quick summaries that you put forth. Again, all the blame falls to one side.

I would love to see the filibuster rule changed to a simple majority. That's the way it is in England.

Filibusters have never been used for anything constructive or positive.

Fear of the filibuster is really the prime reason for the current debacle in Congress. If the Democrats had said to the Republicans "bring it on" then I think the Republicans would have backed down. The American people would have gotten tired of the filibuster tactics.

The hatred manifested by Republican politicians at Democrats and Democratic politicians at Republicans is pretty sad.

What's even worse, you have people on this message board hating on others because they are a different party from them.

I wish we could totally disband political parties. Then people would get back to thinking in terms of what's good for America, including voters.

Voters like to castigate politicians, but are the voters taking the moral ground with such vitriol and hate?

Frankly, it makes me realize that the Civil War really never ended. Remember, Abraham Lincoln warned that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." This country will implode upon itself unless this hatred ends from both ends.

It is not sophistry to tell you what someone would know if that someone merely cracked open a book or two: the Democrats have, since 1932, been the party of Big Government on a scale far outstripping the Republicans.

The New Deal and Great Society were Democratic creations.

In election after election, in fact, Democrats ran on a platform of creating or expanding this or that social program. They often sought to portray Republicans as uncaring or "cruel" if the Republicans proposed even cutting the growth of social entitlements.

We see this today in California today, as an example. The Democrats, being the long-time patrons of entitlement seekers and public employee unions, almost universally oppose anything but large increases in payments to their favored groups. So, under Democratic legislatures from CA to NJ, states fall down the fiscal toilet.

Republicans do the same thing, but to a numerically far less consequential degree. We're talking about countable objects here. So the number of debt dollars makes a difference. The difference in scale is the point because the difference in scale is what makes the qualitative difference in the irresponsible spending of one party versus another.

Obama's spending is in a class by itself. But let's credit what you said and for the moment agree that each party is equally responsible, the dispositive and pertinent question is this:

Having run on a platform of transparency and fiscal reform, having devoted a large chunk of his campaign to deriding the Bush deficits, why has Barack Obama then turned around to propose, through 2020, a series of deficits any one of which is larger than Mr. Bush's?

Did Obama lie to us in 2008?

A year into office and knowing the country faces such colossal deficits--in part because of his own spending--has Obama made anything other than token and lip-service gestures toward any policy of reducing them?

If you recall, Obama originally tried to sell the largest increase in government ever--his healthcare 'reform'--as an effort to control government spending.

He dropped this line of argument once the country finished laughing at it.

Good for Bayh and I hope a few more on both sides resign, quit, decide not to run again. If you can't stand up for what you believe and work with ALL members of Congress and the President then you shouldn't be there. At least we now know for sure that Congress both Democrats and Republicans are screwing the country.

And for all of you who want to make this about President Obama, no way. CONGRESS writes the laws. IT IS CONGRESS that is screwing the country. It is Congress who is beholden to big business, big pharma, insurance companies, Wall Street.... President Obama can not work alone. Both Senators and Representatives have a part to play. If they decide they don't want to get along or compromise or work together then President Obama and the country is screwed. That is what Republicans and some Democrats have been doing to the American people for the past year.

Yeah, Bayh, good luck, see ya later. Time for some new and fresh ideas. Perhaps people who are willing to work TOGETHER rather than against our President and our country will have a say now.

devildogdon wrote: "wireknob does FDR's New Deal (social security) and LBJ's Great Society (medicare and medicade) ring a bell. The worth of these entitlements is arguable, but they are going to bankrupt us if we, dems, republicans and Libertarians such as my self, don't get serious in a hurry. Lets identify the problem and quit pointing fingers."

I'm with you 100%. That was actually my point, if you've been following. Neither side is really doing anything...except making matters worse. We need real leadership to solve these pressing problems, and it's not coming from either party. The partisan blame game affixes blame (always to the other party) but never produces a solution.

The only thing I can find in common between Evan Bayh and Patrick Kennedy is that both rose to political prominence by trading on a family name. Maybe there's something to that, but I'm darned if I can figure out what.

That theme consists of deep anger over Obama's spending spree, his failure even to propose policies that most Americans think will help the economy, his coddling of terrorists, and his transformation of the White House into a Chicago-style operation of vote buying and political thuggery.

Obama has made fools of the people who voted for him. His history was there for them to see, but they ignored it.
.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

Which would you rather have?

Why should Obama continue on when every other democrat in Congress loses their leadership position - when it is Obama's fault to begin with?

"Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done."

Mission Accomplished Senator Bayh. Quit like a Palin. Republicans regret losing a Democrat in name only. Whatever Republican is elected will have to pass the tripartite teabagger litmus test of being a bagger, a birther and a bircher. Even Michael Steele knows DINO's are much easier to manage than teabaggers.

If Biden can call Cheney a 'fine fellow' and Obama can say great things about Bayh, those who think we actually have a Democrat President and Vice-President are wrong. Democrats have been punked. Obama and Biden are what used to be known as moderate Republicans, a species that can no longer exist within the Republican Party. Obama and Biden are not nearly as mean and vindictive as the last crew was but they are still moderate Republicans.

wireknob does FDR's New Deal (social security) and LBJ's Great Society (medicare and medicade) ring a bell. The worth of these entitlements is arguable, but they are going to bankrupt us if we, dems, republicans and Libertarians such as my self, don't get serious in a hurry. Lets identify the problem and quit pointing fingers.

Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is one public official who has had it--as far as serving in a Senate which has been reduced to stalemate and paralysis.

The atmosphere in the whole Congress, in fact and tragically, has become so venomous--"radioactive" is another appropriate adjective--that Republicans and Democrats now limit themselves virtually to thwarting, frustrating, opposing, blocking, demonizing and defeating each other.

They thus are not able to do the job which American voters expect them to do--which is to cooperate with each other in finding good and effective solutions to the nation's daunting problems.

If I was in congress I'd probably quit too.. how many times can you talk about the same problems and have nothing actually happen because everyone is chicken sh&t? Spineless cowards should all be tarred and feathered.

"Instead of all this speculation about Bayh's reason for retirement, maybe we ought to take him at his word?"

Well, we could except that it's hard for a politician to say, "I am resigning because the leaders of my party have so screwed up the political environment that I will probably lose."

And, yes, he would have probably lost in Indiana. That poll commissioned by the far-left site Daily Kos site notwithstanding, Democrats in normally red states like Indiana are in dire trouble across the country.

This fall, if the Republican alternative is plausible, independents are going to vote for him or her over the Democrat. Dan Coats in Indiana, a former senator himself, was certainly a plausible alternative to Bayh.

Bayh knew he was toast, even as thoughtful Democrats in MA knew Coakley was in serious trouble even when the momentary polls showed her still leading.

This is why Dorgan gave up in ND, why Biden's son chose not to run in DE, and why Patrick Kennedy called it quits in RI. It's why Lincoln is dead in AR, why Obama's old seat will go to the GOP in IL, why the MO race has swung to the GOP, why Boxer is below 50 percent in CA, why Specter is going to lose in PA, and why Reid is barely at 40 percent against any challenger in NV.

This pattern is all over the country. It's not a string of coincidences or idiosyncratic episodes. It's a pattern with a common theme.

That theme consists of deep anger over Obama's spending spree, his failure even to propose policies that most Americans think will help the economy, his coddling of terrorists, and his transformation of the White House into a Chicago-style operation of vote buying and political thuggery.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

Which would you rather have?

Why should Obama continue on when every other democrat in Congress loses their leadership position - when it is Obama's fault to begin with?

As a resident of the state of Indiana I am very pleased with Sen. Bayh's decision not to run for re-election. Sen. Bayh, formerly a fiscal conservative, social moderate, has strayed from his fiscal values - particularly over the last 12 months. The final straw in Sen. Bayh's fall from grace in the state was his 'cheerleading' on the inside at the all-Democrat, closed-door negotiations on health care. His phone banks have burned out in the last month. Sen. Bayh did the correct thing...pull out now before you lose your shirt in the November election. I do believe he is sick & tired of DC, particularly the Senate.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

Which would you rather have?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

How could his resignation save the Democrats? Parties that have a President in office tend to lose seats-it's cyclical. Reagan found himself exactly where the President now stands. I'm betting he will likely be reelected, but his party will take losses.

"That's the idea of the exchange, so that government WOULDN'T be involved."

You are mistaken. Read the bill(s). The government would fund and direct these exchanges. The government would determine the price and products in these exchanges. They were, by any definition, government-run entities."

Oops, I forgot to copy and paste the actual assertion that government would determine the price. Just in case people were unsure that something so patently stupid was actually said.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

Which would you rather have?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

How could his resignation save the Democrats? Parties that have a President in office tend to lose seats-it's cyclical. Reagan found himself exactly where the President now stands. I'm betting he will likely be reelected, but his party will take losses.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

Which would you rather have?

Why should Obama continue on when every other democrat in Congress loses their leadership position - when it is Obama's fault to begin with?

SARileyMan wrote: "I believe I indeed assigned some of the blame for this situation to the Republicans."

Not nearly enough, though. Most of today's spending is handed down from prior years (i.e., it's not discretionary). Entitlements, costs for wars, interest on the debt, etc. Revenue shortfalls today are caused by poor economic leadership of the past that led to a massive recession. I'm not disagreeing with most of you criticism of Democrats today, but the same criticism applies to Republicans since Reagan.

I know I'm wasting my time because you will always find some sophistry that pins the blame for most of everything back on Democrats.

Have you ever considered that you sound to others just like those on the left sound to you? Glibly twisting the facts and history to defend your partisan allegiance to a political party, and turning a blind eye to all their egregious failings. Summarizing decades of history relating to an issue in a blog entry, so that you can arrive at the predictable conclusion that Democrats are at fault for most of our problems.

The Dems may lose Indiana but will the GOP lose McCain's seat in Arizona? Little chance Hayworth comes off mainstream enough to win a statewide race unless the Dem candidate is a complete loser.

Posted by: parkerfl1 | February 15, 2010 5:20 PM

If Hayworth wins the primary, one of two things will happen. Either that slime ball McCain pulls an Arlen Specter and runs as a democrat or he retires and then Napolitano steps in as the democratic candidate. Obama needs a reason to dump her and save face.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

"Or something is getting ready to blow up and embarass all the Dems on Capitol Hill sometime in the next 8 months. Probably the latter."

You mean, the next eight months for the Dems will be like the last eight months?

If a Republican activist had been asked in January 2009, "Imagine a dream scenario for the GOP over the next 14 months," he would have thought himself psychotically optimistic to imagine what the Democrats have done since Obama took office.

If anyone still thinks Barack Obama is this exceptionally brilliant politician worthy of sycophantic deference or continued devotion, he needs his examined.

He has committed political blunders that historians will be writing about a century from now.

The only way out for the Congressional democrats is to get Obama to resign - it is either the democrats lose all those leadership positions and committee chairmanships - or they find a way to get Obama to resign.

A centrist Democrat, Bayh must have gotten physically ill from the Liberal so-called leadership. Or something is getting ready to blow up and embarass all the Dems on Capitol Hill sometime in the next 8 months.

"Health" "insurance" companies raise rates by 40% and the Republican and Tea Baggers bend over and say, "Please, my corporate overlord, I'd like some more."

They deserve what they get when they're laid off, their health insurance is gone, and IF they can get individual insurance, it goes up 40% every single friggin' year.

And they'll still say they want their "freedom" -- freedom to be raped by the corporations who now have more "constitutional" rights than human beings do, thanks to George Bushes, Sr. and Jr., and their reactionary appointments to the lifetime sinecures in our third branch of government.

Oh, yeah, tea baggers. You'll get your "freedom." All the freedom Wellpoint and Halliburton want you to have. The freedom to send them all your money. You won't have to pay income tax, though, because you won't have enough income to reach even the lowest bracket.

But then you'll have plenty of time to spend with your families, because you'll be out of work, and your kids won't be able to go to school, since there won't be any tax money to pay for them.

Shortsighted isn't the right word for these people who hate their "government" so much. Shortsighted people can see a little bit. These unevolved pieces of pond scum are totally BLIND.

Will they ever see? When their homes are gone because corporations decided their mortgages and credit card debts could not be erased by bankruptcy, when their pensions are gone because corporations decided they wanted to keep that money and use it to pay million dollar bonuses to failed CEOs, when their children get sick and die because corporations decided they didn't want to cover people who might acutally NEED the health care they were supposedly "insuring," when they get mugged walking home from the soup kitchen because corporations decided not to pay tax for cops ... will they finally SEE?

It will be too late.

Learn to beg, tea baggers, because that is all you'll have the "freedom" to do once "Citizens" United have solidified their control.

"Just to set the record straight, Bayh was no fan of Obama's healthcare reform (of which iteration I cannot know you reference as 'Obamacare'). Bayh has been to the White House for more arm-twisting than about any democrat in the senate (why waste time with morons like Lieberman?). "

Sorry, but Bayh voted for it. It does not matter if he did so reluctantly. He voted for it, and he's responsible for that indelible, unalterable fact.

As a great many Democrats will soon learn, voting for Obamacare will be the kiss of death.

As to which iteration of "Obamacare"... the exact version does not matter. Obama commissioned Pelosi and Reid to create various forms of government interventions in the healthcare market that would lead, as night follows day, toward a government-run healthcare system. Twaddling over the differences between those versions is like banal discussions of whether Hitler or Stalin was worse. It hardly matters.

"Obamacare" is shorthand for that process, which manifestly emanated from the West Wing.

He finally caved in and voted for Obamacare with the scars and bruises to show for it.He is obviously repulsed by the vicious tactics that are now employed by Obama,Reid and Pelosi on their own members.Bayh is no presidential candidate but might be a superb college chancellor.

Incredible to believe, however it is time to start watching the polls in Wisconsin and Washington State. The Senate is in play.

It is all Obama's fault.

All of Obama's public statements and actions in the past few weeks have not made the situation any better - in fact, he has only confirmed the public's suspicion that Obama is partisan.

Calling people racist when they really aren't isn't going to work either.

The best way the democrats can hold onto both Houses of Congress is to get Obama to resign. Right now the public is ready to get someone - the democrats in Congress can either offer up Obama whose fault it is - or the democrats in Congress will suffer.

"Could it be that there are a bunch of horrible decisions to be made in the coming years and decades and there aren't any statesmen left? Could it be that the country has just gotten to the point where it is ungovernable?"

Yes, if you define being "governable" as meaning the American people will supinely let the government take ever-more of our money, hand over our future to Chinese creditors, tell us to drive in tiny cars because of global warming that does not exist, grant terrorists constitutional protections, and choose our doctors or medical treatments.

I should hope any freedom-loving people would show themselves to be entirely ungovernable if that what "governance" means.

The American people are fed up with the overspending, the borrowing, the Nanny-State regulations, and the politically-correct insanity that says we cannot be truthful about the threat of Islamic terrorism.

And they will punish any politician who seeks to advance the cause of Bigger Government.

Just to set the record straight, Bayh was no fan of Obama's healthcare reform (of which iteration I cannot know you reference as 'Obamacare'). Bayh has been to the White House for more arm-twisting than about any democrat in the senate (why waste time with morons like Lieberman?). Look, Bayh is an articulate, smart politician. He's a centrist and runs well in Indiana. He is still more popular in Indiana than his republican challengers (though his numbers have slipped). He's being pushed out by Dems, not because he embraces Obama's vision -- he's not an Obama groupy.

"They have robbed Social Security to cover their fiscal irresponsibility"

Check your facts, please.

It was the second BUSH (REPUBLICAN) administration that robbed Social Security to cover their fiscal irresponsibility. It was REPUBLICAN VP Dick (the Dark Lord) Cheney who said "Deficits don't matter."

I think it's a real crock that Bayh chooses to announce he's not running for re-election the day before the actual deadline for submitting the nomination application AND petitions with 4,500 voter signatures. What the reports say about friday being the deadline is bad enough, but the nominations actually have to be in by tomorrow so that certifying officials can verify by friday.

The good senator from Indiana laments the lack of bipartisanship as one of the reasons he is retiring. The Dems had a SUPER MAJORITY and they have passed nothing of note in a year. You cannot hide behind no bipartisanship when one party is driving the train and is hellbent to force their issues on an American public that has soured on them. Good senator take the 13 M and run.

Posted by: melj1 | February 15, 2010 4:14 PM | Report abuse

Actually they have had this majority since 2006. The only thing it appears they have really been concerned about it steroids in baseball and now injuries in football. For over 4 years they have held power and have done nothing. Then they sit back with a confused look wondering why the people kick them to the curb.

Could it be that there are a bunch of horrible decisions to be made in the coming years and decades and there aren't any statesmen left? Could it be that the country has just gotten to the point where it is ungovernable? The result of this has got to be considered a win for the GOP and they won it by creating a hostile environment for anyone with any honesty or desire to work in the best interests of our country. What the Republicans can expect if and when they get control of Congress is the same sort of idiots venting on them the way the Tea Party has been venting on the Democrats, but that might not be a problem for them because they limit themselves to invitation only events for the most part and won't invite anyone who disagrees with them.
What will be interesting is to see how he votes for the rest of his tenure--if he votes his conscience or if he will keep voting for where his money came from.

Too bad for the brain drain, but bipartisan Government is asking for it. Those who want a National Plan, who realize America is going to get resoundly defeated economically by nations such as China who have a clearly stated one, are the most intelligent people in Government. The Deficit Committee would have been a perfect starting place for discussing a National Plan.

"I don't see how anyone in either party that has any morals and ethics can serve in this congress. Obama, Reid and Pelosi have corrupted the house and senate to a point where upstanding individuals cannot serve"

A member of Congress is only responsible for how he or she votes. That's the acid test. If you're a Democrat and you've voted for Obamacare, as Bayh did, you're going to pay a fearsome price for that vote if you represent a non-liberal state or district.

If you opposed Obamacare, you will reap the electoral benefits.

Voting yes on Obamacare will, before it's all said and done, cost probably 60-70 Democrats their seats in the House and Senate.

Why? Because the American people do not want that nonsense, and the voters in right-leaning states like Indiana especially do not want it.

The American people are scared witless by the madness of Obama's spending spree. They want it to stop. Obamacare was just an example of that.

Bayh gambled that Obamacare would pass and that his vote would be forgotten after the legislative victory.

therealcalgal, needs to realize this is not about democrats vs. republicans, liberals vs. conservatives or left and right vs. moderates. This is about admitted radicals wanting to "fundamentally transform America" vs.our constitution, republic and free enterprise system.

We are no longer talking politics as we have known it. We are talking about people wanting to take this country down so they can remake it to fit their idealogy.

Bayh is full of it. He has been dragging his feet on any change in healthcare since his wife is on Wellpoint's board and has made big, biG, BIG bucks siphoning off the health insurance profit hose. The kind of obstruction that is making some of the contributors sick on this board can be placed partially at the feet of Bayh and his ilk. I voted for him because he's an alternative to fat cat Republican ex-lobbyists (those like Coates.) that definitely work for the big money interests. I'd still take Bayh to what is probably coming down the pike in Hoosierville. This is naive, but maybe this will open the door for a real progressive to at least try to run for Senate in Indiana. Perhaps state party members should talk to Indianapolis ex-mayor and democrat, Bart Peterson. I honestly think that Bayh dropping out is a harbinger of another big push for healthcare reform from the dems (reconciliation?). He probably can't stomach it and the progressive caucas on the hill can't stand him because he ultimately plays for K-street. I think he leans on fiscal responsibility as a ruse. He, however, did not drop out because he was going to lose to Coates -- that's a joke! Coates is still scrambling for enough sigs. Perhaps he held on in order to ensure Mike Pence did not jump in -- that would have been a game-over scenario for any democratic challenger.

I don't see how anyone in either party that has any morals and ethics can serve in this congress. Obama, Reid and Pelosi have corrupted the house and senate to a point where upstanding individuals cannot serve.

We have got to clean house starting in 2010 and finish the job, top down, in 2012. In the meantime somehow we must hold the admitted radicals in our government at bay.

Those on the right posting here and decrying the loss of a "moderate" Senator need to be challenged: What's happened to moderate REPUBLICANS in the House and Senate.

You can call Pelosi and Reid socialist dictators if you want, but look in the mirror first.

YOU'RE the party with "purity" tests. YOU'RE the party who KICKS OUT moderates. Yes, it's harder for Democrats to get things together, because WE really have diversity in OUR party.

YOU are the ones who walk in lock step and drive out moderates.

Your lies and your calumny may succeed. As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." But then you all probably see him as a socialist danger to your "real American" values.

But you are killing the American dream. You are killing the good name of our country around the world. You are turning us into a nation of spoiled, bratty children hoarding all their toys and shouting, "NO" when asked to be nice and share.

You write: "Intellectual honesty would lead you to indict Republicans as well as Democrats for the mess we find ourselves in."

I believe I indeed assigned some of the blame for this situation to the Republicans.

But when it comes to the big social programs that have brought us to near-insolvency, the Democrats have been far more responsible for their creation and enlargement than Republicans. This is just historical fact.

And it is indisputable that the Democrats, acting alone, have sought in the last year to layer atop an insolvent federal government what would have been the largest and most costly (and most wasteful) bureaucracy in the history of the world: Obamacare.

Obama's 2011 deficit, by his own optimistic estimates, will be nearly 4 times larger than Bush's biggest deficit.

So, it is false that "both parties are the same." It's not true. The GOP at its worst in terms of deficit spending was never more than a small fraction of how bad Obama is.

Respect for the facts must compel you to acknowledge that Barack Obama and the Democrats have gone way, way beyond fiscal irresponsibility into outright fiscal madness. Obama's budget has 40 percent of every federal dollar spent being borrowed.

Let me put it this way:

$300,000,000,000 deficits are what happened under Bush's irresponsible leadership.

But $1,500,000,000,000 deficits are the result of Obama's leadership.

There's a huge difference between those numbers.

Whether you can admit that difference is completely unimportant. The American voters see it, and they understand it, and they are going to blow the Democrats into oblivion because of it.

The good senator from Indiana laments the lack of bipartisanship as one of the reasons he is retiring. The Dems had a SUPER MAJORITY and they have passed nothing of note in a year. You cannot hide behind no bipartisanship when one party is driving the train and is hellbent to force their issues on an American public that has soured on them. Good senator take the 13 M and run.

Both sides need major house cleaning. The repulicans dammmmm near sent up over the cliff and the democrats are now pushes us the rest of the way over as we scratch and claw to hang onto this nation.
Stop this healthcare plan now and re-do it and the American people will unite along with you. But your eyes are locked on a major political victory for Obama that you can not see the train coming on the track you are standing on.
How about all citizens (non-illegals)from president on down be on a "single payer" plan. No back room deals!

Mari26 - "...and sets the stage for a Democratic primary challenge to President Obama."

That's overdoing it a bit much. Perhaps there will be a Democratic primary "challenge" to Obama, but it certainly won't be one taken seriously, and it definitely won't be at all related to Senator Bayh's decision to retire.

After listening to Sen. Bahy on Fox Sunday,
I was incredibly impressed, it was a sad reminder, of how rare; honesty and candor,
from a public servant, have become.
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, David Axelrod,
and yes, Barack Obama... could be replaced by parrots. squawking the company line,
forever answering questions with non answers.
they keep comparing obama to jimmy carter,
but that comparison does not give President Carter the Dignity he deserves.

Democrat Senator Bayh says too much partisanship and not enough progress. The American people agree and respect Senator Bayh's decision to retire from Democrat politics. Where is the partisanship coming from?

Congress has been pressured by the Obama White House to pass Democrat legislation and we have seen Yes votes for Democrats and No votes for Republicans. Where are the separations of power between Congress, Executive and Judicial and the checks and balances? The Republicans are putting checks on the White House version of social programs by federal law.

Partisanship is coming from the Democrat congressional majority and the Democrat White House. It is the Democrat Party line vote in Congress or else the Republicans are accused of obstruction and passing federal law for the good of the people.

Republicans vote No because they think the proposed legislation is not for the good of the people and have justified their opposition and No votes to the American people. Obama administration political public relation tactics will not fool the people.

This partisanship is not political bickering as Obama claims. It is serious debate by elected representatives of the American people that is relevant to fundamental differences in governing a Nation.

Republicans was to reduce national debt, stop deficit government spending and focus on fixing problems related to getting people back to work, cost containment on health care, and enforcement of a strong and vital national security measures. God bless American and vote Republican.

Amazing how many absolutely stupid racists read the Washington Post and post comments. They have very short memories if they don't acknowledge the deep, deep economic ditch the Bush II Administration drove us into. And if they think ANY single person could have pulled us all the way out of it in one year, I weep the future of this country.

What do they propose? Trying the same thing again (tax cuts for the rich) and expecting a different result.

FACT: The country does MUCH better economically with Democrats in charge.

But put a smart, moderate, articulate black man in the White House and all they can do is throw rocks from the back yard of their own glass houses.

The dirt they smear has probably made their house so dirty they forgot it's made of glass.

" However, how does Obama stop being Obama?
What in his life or significant associations tells us he is not the left-wing activist he has been as president?
The simplest explanation is that Obama, with the slavish assistance of the MSM, succeeded in deceiving the American Middle with his 2008 promises of fiscal responsibility, post-partisan governance, competent leadership, transparency, etc.
He has shown none of those qualities, has he? Maybe the reason he has not shown them is because he does not have those qualities at all."
He does not have speaking or communicating ability accept for Telerpompter. He shoots out with out knowing what benefits the people.WE,Americans are used to running our own house-hold and community. We are the type people who enjoy free unihibited work.
Just heard that Senator Bayh is going to step down, the reason the congress and the WH are not with the people.Although a senior member, he feels that our leaders are moving far left-basically taking over the people's life. It remains to be seen what eaxctly drove him make this decision

I certainly hope the U.S. Senate retains the filibuster and that each party robustly uses it. The filibuster is a check on government power and, yes, a check on the passions of the people.

It is amusing to see Democrats, who defended the filibuster during the Bush years as an important part of American government, now say how "undemocratic" it is.

Well, of course, it's undemocratic! It should be. So is the electoral college. Our system is not plebiscitary democracy. It is a constitutional republic. The goal is to have a slow, cumbersome government, especially when it comes to serious issues. An efficient government tends to tyranny. This is something the Founders understood, and the last 230 years of world history has shown it over and over.

Anything that slows down the federal legislature in making large changes in policy is an unalloyed good.

Congress has shown itself to be wildly irresponsible in fiscal matters. Given Congress's tendency to ruin almost everything it touches, our goal should be to curtail its power and disrupt the flow of congressional action, not increase its efficiency in using that power. A speedy Senate is the last thing America needs.

Encouraging it to pass laws with greater speed would be madness. Congressional fools have nearly ruined the economy of the United States. These are not the people to fix it.

Congress' abuse of its power is how we got to this sorry point. Until Congress shows it can act responsibly, we should have more filibusters, not less.

Are the Democrats on this board really happy with the proposed health care bills?
Just wondering here, if you are happy with the union exemptions along with the closed door deals.
If so, please know that you are in the minority! Most want lower medocal cost from premiums on down, but not like these bills.
No one has yet to tell me! If my premiums will really go down and if so how!
What are my deductables, co-pays and max out of pocket.
I read a lot of the Senate bill and eventually stopped as it got way to much for my small mind.
Nowhere did it let me know what was and was not covered. The 60% of medical cost factors will be paid via insurance plan. Who pays the other 40% not paid by plan?
Will we the taxpayers have to pay for the premiums of the poor and non-taxed lower to middle class plus their 40% the plan did not cover.
Or will doctors, hospitals be required to eat that 40% of medical cost the plans do not pay.

I am not defending Democrats or their penchant for massive programs. We would probably find much agreement when it comes to criticism of Democrats.

But Republicans greatly expanded government over the past 30 years as well, though they paid lip service to small government principles. You chose to believe Republican rhetoric over their record...I do not.

Republican administrations and congressional majorities were largely responsible for running up huge deficits and swelling the national debt when they controlled government. (deficits don't matter, remember that?)

I could go on, but my basic point is that you cannot separate the current year from the past, and Republicans have been at least as irresponsible as Democrats. If you insist on defending Republicans despite their dismal record on the issues you bring up, that is your choice. I'm looking at the records of both parties and am not afraid to say that both stink.

Intellectual honesty would lead you to indict Republicans as well as Democrats for the mess we find ourselves in.

In his statement, Bayh said: "I am an executive at heart. I value my independence. I am not motivated by strident partisanship or ideology. These traits may be useful in many walks of life, but they are not highly valued in Congress." He added: "All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state, and our nation than continued service in Congress."

As a political junkie, I think today's announcement by Sen. Bayh opens the door to a very interesting Presidential election in 2012 and sets the stage for a Democratic primary challenge to President Obama. The floodgates have been opened. There is also the possibility that challenge may never materialize if instead President Obama chooses to follow in the footsteps of LBJ and not run for reelection. If that were the case, then Sen. Bayh would find himself in a prime position for the Democratic nomination for President in 2012. Stranger things have happened in politics.

In his statement, Bayh said: "I am an executive at heart. I value my independence. I am not motivated by strident partisanship or ideology. These traits may be useful in many walks of life, but they are not highly valued in Congress." He added: "All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state, and our nation than continued service in Congress."

The retiring senator took a swipe at Washington in the most elegant manner I have ever seen. He adeptly managed to bow out of his Senate reelection gracefully while leaving the door wide open for another run at public office, perhaps of a higher nature in the future. Impressive.

("It's the Senate, Stupid!")
We Americans are uncommonly blinded by denial. As Winston Churchill said, "One can trust the Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried all other alternatives." The usual stock phrases "government gridlock," government paralysis," "voter frustration," “voter anger,” and most infuriating of all, "political reality,” somehow manage to avoid the obvious: no matter how the majority of Americans vote, the Senate, insulated by 6 year terms and short voter memory, behaves with imperial arrogance, more House of Lords than democracy. The Senate's quaint rules could, in final analysis, all be abolished, constitutionally, by simple majority vote; up to, and including the so-called “super-majority” imposed for changing rules.
Nothing succeeds like success. The frustration and powerlessness currently infecting government and society as a whole, have roots, directly or indirectly, in the Senate's obstructionism. Somehow, the rest of the free world has managed to survive, without these quaint idiosyncrasies, as did the United States, until relatively recently in our history. The British did away with their House of Lords' extraordinary powers, well back in 1911. "The tyranny of the majority," indeed! Come on. Are we listening to what that phrase implies?
The Senate does not represent the people. It represents states; originally, there was no requirement that any senator be popularly elected. Indeed, what could have been more like a House of Lords than that? It took the 17th amendment, not surprisingly blocked, repeatedly, by the senate of the time, to change it; coincidentally, near the time that the Brits were doing away with their House of Lords' privileges. Now the time may be at hand, once again, for Americans to amend what the good senators, too characteristically, appear unwilling to fix on their own. The first step is to call a spade, a spade.

"That's the idea of the exchange, so that government WOULDN'T be involved."

You are mistaken. Read the bill(s). The government would fund and direct these exchanges. The government would determine the price and products in these exchanges. They were, by any definition, government-run entities.

If you don't want the government involved in the "exchange," then I agree with you. That exchange is called the "free market."

If and when we get to a truly free market in health insurance, the pricing will become rational. We do not have that free market now because government intrusion distorts it.

After all, between Medicare and Medicaid, the government already spends 50 percent of the health dollars in this country--and it does it with such grotesque inefficiencies that the unfunded liabilities of these programs threaten the fiscal stability of the whole country.

This is the mess to which Obama and the Democrats wanted to add an even larger mess.

For those of us who worked really really hard to get the Dems in control of congress. Those of us who volunteered, gave money, and put the issues in front of potential voters - I'd like to give a BIG FAT FUUUUUUU to the Democratic leadership and each and every Democrat in congress for doing exactly NOTHING with the best opportunity that they would ever have.

As the Democrats said when we GAVE THEM both houses of congress in 2006 - "We are here to look forward, not look back" So, that is what I'm doing. So long DUMMYCRAPS! Don't let the door hit ya' where the good Lord split ya'.

He is simply taking his money and going home to enjoy it, his nice retirement package, and his wonderful health care.

We need "health insurance regulation reform" - not the ubiquitous "health care reform" which has nothing at all to do with health care. Bayh needed to do the tough stuff of standing up to the idiot in the White House.

Between Specter's defection to the Democrats and Scott Brown's swearing in, the Senate Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. No other entity than the Democrats can be blamed for what happened during that time.

I did not speak about any other time period. The GOP in the Bush years acted with great irresponsibility when it came to fiscal matters.

But let's not kid ourselves. The Democratic Party has been, for 75 years, the party of bigger government. They have always sought to expand the size, scope, and cost of government.

They, more than anyone else, have built the house of cards that is now ready to come crashing down.

Yes, the GOP bears some of the historic blame. Bush adding yet another entitlement (the Medicare drug problem) was idiotic and irresponsible. The GOP went along with that is to their discredit. They have already paid a heavy price for that, too.

But by far the Democrats bear most of the blame for the current situation. You can't be the party that aggressively expanded government for three generations and then turn around and say, "Well, it's not our fault that the government is too big!"

That's just not honest.

And since Obama took office, they bear almost all the blame for the madness of trillion-dollar deficits. The Democrats alone voted for that madness.

Interesting that he intentioanlly delayed his announcement so that Democratic primary voters would be denied the chance to select a candidate. I guess important decisions like that have to be made by Rahm these days. Thats so, so, so .....democratic???

The Democrats' "insurance exchange" was no answer. It was a laughable euphemism. It was just a cynical placeholder for eventual, outright government control of health care pricing.

And in any event, the "insurance exchange" would have allowed the government to set prices rather than the market, with all the horrific consequences that follows such government meddling in every market it has tried.

Government is not the answer.

Posted by: SARileyMan"

Um, yeah, good "debate" skills. I can do it too.

Reaganomics is just a laughable euphemism for "shooting minorities." Take two completely unrelated things and stick "laughable euphemism" in the middle of it. The insurance exchange has nothing to do with price controls. That's the idea of the exchange, so that government WOULDN'T be involved.

Save your fifth grade rhetoric for second graders. They might actually be a receptive audience.

Although I did not always agree with him, I respected Senator Evan Bayh. We need more people like him in Congress and fewer of the extremists on both sides, such as Reid and Pelosi. Cut out the partisan politics and begin working together for the good of the country. Until we see change at both the congressional and executive level of government, the state of our country will continue to deteriorate.

12genamerican:By your post you would rather have Mitch McConnell and John Boehner in the majority than the democrats. One of two things you either have a very short memory or are blind as to what went on for the past 8 years when the republicans got us into this mess that you are blaming the democrats for. There is no way the democrats could have wrecked this country and destroyed our economy in one short year.I'm an Independent who doesn't agree with some of the things the democrats are doing but at least they try and all the republicans do is SAY NO to anything that would help this country.The republicans have no plans other than tax cuts fot the wealthy they are useless.Senator Bayh is a good man and I can understand why he is tired of putting up with fools like Mitch and John but I'm sorry to see him go.

SARileyMan: "It is intellectually dishonest to say "both parties" have caused the mess of the last year. The GOP has been politically irrelevant until Scott Brown's election. And he was elected, in part, to put the brake on the Democrats' spend-and-borrow madness.

The Democrats have had the power, and they abused it, and they're going to pay a deserved and very heavy price."

----------------------

Sorry, SARileyMan, but it isn't as simple as your partisan view makes it out to be. How easily you excuse Republicans from any responsibility for the fiscal mess we're in. How easily you blame Democrats for all the problems of today, as if they all had their genesis in the past year. It's like history and logic have no place in your warped partisan mind. It's people like you, on both sides, that are responsible for the mess...you vote for it.

I'm not defending Democrats, mind you. Neither side is willing to make the tough choices and truly lead.

IT IS TIME TO CASH OUT. AFTER ALL THESE YEARS WORKING IN FAVOR OF THE CORPORATE HE WILL END UP MAKING MILLIONS FROM HIS FORMER CORRUPTER. EVERY CONGRESS PERSON WHO RETIRES HAVE A HEAVEN FULL OF GREEN STUFF , NOT SEVEN VIRGINS, WAITING FOR THEM.

I'm glad to see him go, me being a very liberal Democrat, I'm glad to see him quit Bayh is one of the problem with the Democrats. Bayh knows the problem in Washington and He also Knows that we need health-care. and him being one of them spineless gutless cowards to fight for whats right, he quits. When you have a prolem like health- care and every one knows it needs reform, he was'nt for it anyway. He is not a fighter, he has not grown a set of balls yet, thats the biggest problem with the Dems that piss me off well all I can say is he is a coward so good by Mr chicken S###

fyi Henereshott.....it was right-wing Purtians that settled this country...we aren't going anywhere but the godless liberal/progressives are going to be moved to Greenland.........they should really be happy there.......

Posted by allenridge
-----------------------------------------
Actually, the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 on were more like religious progressives, who wanted to see the Church of England become more Calvinist in doctrine and practice. They most certainly didn't want to keep (conserve) the doctrines and practices of the Church of England as it then was.

The Pilgrims who settled the Plymouth Colony in 1620 were Separatists, who believed that they had to form a separate church altogether rather than trying to change the Church of England from within. By the standards of the larger Puritan movement, they were quite radical.

"Their record number of filibusters and obstructionism may turn an entire generation off to politics. "

This is dishonest. Until Scott Brown won in MA, the Democrats in the Senate had a filibuster-proof majority."

They had the filibuster proof majority for only a few months. Further, the Dems are a big tent and had several Conserva-Dems" watering down the health care reform bill to protect their pockets and reelection campaigns.

That does not change the fact that the GOP is obstructing for pure political purposes. They are trying to defeat Obama at "waterloo"..not to govern and not stand on principles...pure politics.

I am actually happy the Dems lost the super majority because in their obsession to retain all 60 votes they ended up watering down the health care reform bill to a Republican-lite version that did nothing to fix the problem. Now that 60 Dem votes is impossible maybe they can get back to advancing a truly Progressive agenda.

"Their record number of filibusters and obstructionism may turn an entire generation off to politics. "

This is dishonest. Until Scott Brown won in MA, the Democrats in the Senate had a filibuster-proof majority."

They had the filibuster proof majority for only a few months. Further, the Dems are a big tent and had several Conserva-Dems" watering down the health care reform bill to protect their pockets and reelection campaigns.

That does not change the fact that the GOP is obstructing for pure political purposes. They are trying to defeat Obama at "waterloo"..not to govern and not stand on principles...pure politics.

I am actually happy the Dems lost the super majority because in their obsession to retain all 60 votes they ended up watering down the health care reform bill to a Republican-lite version that did nothing to fix the problem. Now that 60 Dem votes is impossible maybe they can get back to advancing a truly Progressive agenda.

Hopefully Bayh will run for the White House in 2012 a la Ted Kennedy in 1980, because I do NOT want to have to vote for a Republican. Obama is a weak candidate that would be easy to beat in a primary--after all, Hillary did receive more votes in the 2008 primary. Obama's biggest advantage was the surprise factor in the undemocratic caucuses, Bayh could come up with a strategy to decrease Obama's delegate margins in these events and he could easily get the support of the Reagan Democrats.

The big problem for Bayh would be uniting the Democratic party for the general election--Obama is not nearly as classy or as invested in the Democratic party as the Clintons, so I could see him refusing to back Bayh in the general, and the Democratic party fracturing--this is the problem with the two parties empowering people like Edwards, Palin, and Obama--we simply do not know enough about these individuals to know if they will do the best thing for their party or themselves. Obama took the low road in the primary by NOT denouncing his supporters that tried to tarnish the image of President Clinton, so I do not have much faith in him putting the party above his desires.

I will just take my $13 million and jump off this sinking ship !!! I'm sure that his Dad would be proud of his little boy ???

................and now for a comment from Barry and SanFranNan..................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................
...........................................chirp, chirp, chirp...............................................
.........................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................
........................................................apparently they have no comment ???

1. The federal government does not make real solutions, it makes real problems.

2. Congressional law-making has been superseded by regulatory bureaucracies reporting the to the executive branch.

3. While I think that Bayh's political views are akin to socialism and unconstitutional, I respect him as an honorable man for leaving the Senate after two terms-12 years. All Senators from all parties should follow this lead. Since so many Senators are not honorable at all, we need a Constitutional amendment to limit Senate terms per person per lifetime to 2 of 6 years each. House members should be limited to 6 terms of 2 years each. That is enough for anybody. It also lowers the value of a Congressman in the eyes of lobbyists and other bribers.

we have been broadsided by a global warming hoax that has already cost us jobs. the american people have been put out of work because of this green bullship. the dems are going to be voted out enmass. freaking wack-jobs destroying the country.

A moderate middle of the road Senatory like Bayh must have been heartsick over the last year at the radical lurch to the left, and the corruption that has been going on under the "The Chicago Way"! Can you imagine being an honest man concerned about the country, yet part of a majority that can't afford to lose one vote, and having to vote for the corrupt stimulous bill, or the Louisiana Purchase, Cornhusker Kickback, and $60 billion union payoff?

Sure, allenridge. It's the godless, corrupt, LIBBURUL MEDIA. All we got during the Bush years was comity, truth, and light from the press and the Preznit himself. How I wish you'd establish your Republican dream on some desert island and leave this country to those without their heads you know where.

Posted by: Hendershott |
======================================

fyi Henereshott.....it was right-wing Purtians that settled this country...we aren't going anywhere but the godless liberal/progressives are going to be moved to Greenland.........they should really be happy there.......

I don't have any sympathy for Bayh. The problem with our political system is the inability of leaders like him (and in the other party) to deliver real solutions.

The ostensible reason for his decision to leave, the failure of Congress to agree on a bipartisan deficit reduction commission, is a joke. Coming up with ways to reduce the deficit is the job of members of Congress like Bayh. The reason for proposing a commission is that Bayh and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle are unwilling to take the political risks involved in doing that job. We all know that major deficit reduction won't happen without major budget cuts and tax increases. Bayh and those like him lack the courage to acknowledge this and implement it, so their solution is to pass the buck to another group whose members don't need to seek re-election. But they are so afraid of the unpopular measures that are needed that they cannot even bring themselves to do that much. Good riddance to Bayh and the other weak sisters.

"The GOP is hellbent on regaining power just to prove to us all how government can’t work. Their record number of filibusters and obstructionism may turn an entire generation off to politics. The Dems need to pass real reform and once again instill confidence in the American people that government can and will solve big issues."

you are exactly right about this, drop.

The press is in the bag for Rs though and that's a problem. Like this: CC says , 'He specifically cited the recent vote that killed the creation of a debt commission as evidence of the partisan gridlock.

wihtout mentioning it was entirely Rs who killed it -- even 7 of them who originally sponsored it -- just to obstruct anything Ds try to do.

Posted by: drindl |

=============================================

ahh......more lies from the left-wingers.....where do I start.

Let's start on the "
debt commission " lie.......

Obama has 59 votes in the Senate and
..........16 Republicans voted FOR the Debt Commission....let me see, I'm not really smart because I'm a conservative but doesn't

"In his statement, Bayh cited the lack of bipartisan comity as one of the main reasons for the decision. "There is too much partisanship and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving," Bayh will say."
******************************************
Am I wrong or did we not give these dems both the house / senate and presidency. They couldn't find their way out of a paper bag. Fact is Obama's policies are to far left / socialist for a free country. Plain and simple... of course if I were a union leader - I guess I would have a different perspective. "WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNIT" --

"The GOP is hellbent on regaining power just to prove to us all how government can’t work. Their record number of filibusters and obstructionism may turn an entire generation off to politics. The Dems need to pass real reform and once again instill confidence in the American people that government can and will solve big issues."

you are exactly right about this, drop.

The press is in the bag for Rs though and that's a problem. Like this: CC says , 'He specifically cited the recent vote that killed the creation of a debt commission as evidence of the partisan gridlock.

wihtout mentioning it was entirely Rs who killed it -- even 7 of them who originally sponsored it -- just to obstruct anything Ds try to do.

Sure, allenridge. It's the godless, corrupt, LIBBURUL MEDIA. All we got during the Bush years was comity, truth, and light from the press and the Preznit himself. How I wish you'd establish your Republican dream on some desert island and leave this country to those without their heads you know where.

I'm a Republican - but I think Senator Bayh has the potential to be a great statesman. I'd like to see him come back in some way again. Folks like him and former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia and Senator Webb are exactly what we need at this point.

These are Democrats who want social and economic progress for all people -- but without the high cost of big government both in terms of debt and federal intrusiveness and meddling. In an election that was Obama versus Bayh - Bayh is clearly the man this nation needs. The same goes in an election between Palin and Bayh. Bayh is a responsible leader - and is someone we can all look up to.

This is an example of how partisan politics is ruining this country. A strong moderate Senator is retiring because he sees the current climate in Washington is not conducive towards solving problems. Ever since the witch hunt launched against Bill Clinton in 90’s we have lurched from one political tactic to another while leaving governing by the wayside. The GOP is hellbent on regaining power just to prove to us all how government can’t work. Their record number of filibusters and obstructionism may turn an entire generation off to politics. The Dems need to pass real reform and once again instill confidence in the American people that government can and will solve big issues.

Reading this article, then reading many of the comments that are so contentious, so quarrelsome, so belligerant, I'm surprised that anyone runs for the Senate or the House, much less stays there; most of them can get better employment elsewhere, with more power in private industry where few question their tactics, motives, and/or results. If these letters are representative of our society, then this government of/by/for the people will only get worse, and we won't need any "outsiders" to destroy us - we'll do it all by ourselves.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, and a bad hairdo. Given that the only number that matters in the Senate is 60, can't say I would care too much if the R's take it over again, just so long as the D's are just as adamant at obstruction as the R's have been -- especially on judges.

I think we have all just seen in the Citizens United case how important it is to make sure reactionary judges do NOT get approved to an US Courts.

"In his statement, Bayh cited the lack of bipartisan comity as one of the main reasons for the decision. "There is too much partisanship and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving," Bayh will say"

........ Gee whiz we were told that when Obama was elected we would see all new bi-partisanship in Washington DC.......

What happened with that promise?

That FACT is Obama is clearly now the "Great Divider-in-Chief"......yet the most corrupt liberal/progressive institution in America, our MSM wolfpack press, continues to Lie and Mislead the American people regarding that FACT........

drindl wrote: Raise prices, and people without insurance are even less likely to buy it – healthy people especially. Meanwhile, older and sicker customers pay more and more, running up high health bills in a shrinking pool.
-------------------------------
When an industry starts raising prices BECAUSE they are losing customers, they have disclosed they have an unsustainable business model. Not only are the uninsured not going to buy insurance, but the insured are going to drop out.

One theory about these astronomical increases in the individual market, is that the insuror is actually trying to spread the price increases they would like from the employer market, over the individual market. The employer market is more protected from increases due to contracts and competition between carriers.

How long until there is NO individual market? No insuror will continue to bear the overhead of offering products for which there is little demand.

Bayh is a moderate and a common sense guy. This administration's policies of Cap & Trade, complete overhaul of healthcare, raising taxes during a recession, higher debt, exploding deficits, more regulation, legislation being passed w/o being read, a partisan stimulus bill, gov't tearing up legal contracts, unions getting more power (already choking many states) and anti-business rhetoric are not moderate nor do they border on common sense. I don't see where Bayh had a lot of choice.

You are correct: the Democratic Party desperately needs someone to stand up and tell his party to stop their current mad march to the left.

However, Obama's Chicago techniques are vicious, especially on people within the party who disagree with him. I can understand Bayh or anyone not wanting to deal with that sort of Mussolini-like politics.

Five Dem retirements versus SIX GOP retirements. If the Dems, now at 59, lose all five seats, and the GOP holds onto their retiring seats, the Dems would STILL have a majority. So what's the factual basis for a "Senate majority in play" narrative???? Wishful thinking?

The Democrats' "insurance exchange" was no answer. It was a laughable euphemism. It was just a cynical placeholder for eventual, outright government control of health care pricing.

And in any event, the "insurance exchange" would have allowed the government to set prices rather than the market, with all the horrific consequences that follows such government meddling in every market it has tried.

Could it be the blue dog democrat is seeing the light, how quickly this country is going down the tubes. Senator Bayh is starting to show a profile in courage by retiring from the Senate. Now the real test comes in 2012. Maybe there's a reason Bayh has 13 million dollars in his reelection fund. By 2012 he could have plenty of money to launch a presidential bid against Obama. Here's a perfect candidate to start the 3rd party this country has been waiting for. Go Bayh in 2012!

Democrats squandered the opportunity to get ANYthing productive done in 10 months of unimpeded majority aside from raising the national debt to frightening levels. They have truly earned their failure.

You are correct. The GOP retirements are retiring normally, as they seek higher office or a new career, while the Democratic retirements have the decided character of people fleeing a sinking ship.

I predict a year from now very large numbers of Democrats will regard "Obama" as an epithet. His incompetent, terrorist-coddling, and spend-and-borrow madness, is ruining an entire political party and taking down many political careers.

The well respected Research 2000 poll showed Bayh leading by 20 points so fear of not getting reelected was not why he retired. Now's the time for an aggressive Post reporter to find out what WAS the reason Bayh bailed. There's always a reason...

"You wrote: "A 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us."

The solution, of course, is more private competition--something the Democrats oppose because, once increased competition inevitably lower prices, they will have less opportunity to tell people that government is the answer."

I know, the Democrats should have totally come up with something like an insurance exchange where the state boundaries to health insurance are knocked down and people can have a way of easily comparing different insurance plans.

The rats are leaving the sinking ship of crazy pelosi, dirty harry and their teleprompter-reading figurehead! Given their massively unpopular, extremist positions and actions, the loony-left d-crat socialists up for re-election in 2010 have only two choices: resign or be thrown out of office by patriotic Americans. Given their nature, most of the loonies will, like dodd, bayh and dorgan, take the cowards way out and resign.

An important point is: If Obama had 15 - 20 years experience in Washington, he would have a record, an established political persona he could fall back on.

Obama had relatively nothing defining him in terms of accomplishments when he entered office.

Astonishingly, I believe the label "Chicago politician" doesn't work either - if you look at Obama's resume, he had amazingly little involvement with Chicago politics - he was picked to run in a gerrymandered district and sent to Springfield.

Obama started the address he made to Congress in with a phrase "we didn't come to Washington just to ......"

Basically what that meant was Obama was not really interested in the economy or even national security issues - he was interested in a grand strategy with health care - and an economic crisis was not going to stop him.

This was a conscious decision on the party of Obama - to turn his back on the American people and their economic concerns - in favor of creating a passage in the history books on health care.

Instead, Obama made history by creating a case study on how not to get something through Congress.

5 to 6 retiring Senators. Hardly a difference.
The real difference is the number of well-known Republicans retiring from the House to run for Senate or Governor. 12 of the 18 House Republican retirements are seeking promotions. Only 6 of 14 retiring House Democrats are doing the same.

You wrote: "A 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us."

The solution, of course, is more private competition--something the Democrats oppose because, once increased competition inevitably lower prices, they will have less opportunity to tell people that government is the answer.

When it comes to the efficient provision of any service, government is not the answer.

In case you have missed it, this year marks the first time where Social Security pays out more than it will take in. And it will only get worse.

The same actuarial realities behind the coming collapse of Social Security are also working to make Medicare and Medicaid totally unsustainable starting in a few years.

Your government at work: bankrupting America.

The answer to government incompetence is NOT to add an even larger layer of government incompetence.

The answer is getting the government out of the way of private solutions.

This is the only solution to rising health insurance premiums, just like the answer to high energy prices is not more government regulation and straitjacketing of those who add energy to the market, but more energy production.

The problem in the health insurance market is that we have too few insurers--because the Democrats don't want people to have choices.

'WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - One week after their first national convention, the self-styled Teabaggers are facing an identity crisis after one of their members finally Googled the slang term "teabag."

"I was wondering why every time I told people I was a Teabagger they kind of started giggling in an embarrassed way," said Tracy Klugian, a Teabagger from Elyria, Ohio. "I was like, what the heck? Maybe I should use the Google and see what this is all about."

After Mr. Klugian Googled the word "teabag," he was shocked by what he discovered and shared his information with the Teabaggers' leadership, who are now actively looking for a new name for the group.

"We want a name that suggests we're out to give the Democrats a good fight," he said. "So far what we've come up with is the Donkey Punchers."

Run all the Dems out of office. They say they don't like socialism but they've been trying to ram ObamaCare down our throats. That's socialism when someone takes your doctor away and makes you buy a policy from Obama, isn't it?

It is alway interesting to read the comments of small minded persons. Not one writer really knows the reason for the retirement other than what the Senator has said, yet everyone has a suspicion. If the Senator is a man of honor it is quite easy to understand why he is leaaving. no one in their right mind would stay and be embarassed by the leaders of his party. To observe the behind the scenes deals that were made for health care votes or for other bills that have not yet come to vote. the one man of honor was the House member who called POTUS a fibber during his address. Even though everyone knew he was telling the truth it is not proper to make such assertions publicly. Goodby Senator, enjoy what the future holds and look back on your record with pride.

I largely agree with you. The disparity between what Obama promised in 2008 and has tried to do since taking office, is what is killing Democrats now.

However, how does Obama stop being Obama?

What in his life or significant associations tells us he is not the left-wing activist he has been as president?

The simplest explanation is that Obama, with the slavish assistance of the MSM, succeeded in deceiving the American Middle with his 2008 promises of fiscal responsibility, post-partisan governance, competent leadership, transparency, etc.

He has shown none of those qualities, has he? Maybe the reason he has not shown them is because he does not have those qualities at all.

It is alway interesting to read the comments of small minded persons. Not one writer really knows the reason for the retirement other than what the Senator has said, yet everyone has a suspicion. If the Senator is a man of honor it is quite easy to understand why he is leaaving. no one in their right mind would stay and be embarassed by the leaders of his party. To observe the behind the scenes deals that were made for health care votes or for other bills that have not yet come to vote. the one man of honor was the House member who called POTUS a fibber during his address. Even though everyone knew he was telling the truth it is not proper to make such assertions publicly. Goodby Senator, enjoy what the future holds and look back on your record with pride.

It is alway interesting to read the comments of small minded persons. Not one writer really knows the reason for the retirement other than what the Senator has said, yet everyone has a suspicion. If the Senator is a man of honor it is quite easy to understand why he is leaaving. no one in their right mind would stay and be embarassed by the leaders of his party. To observe the behind the scenes deals that were made for health care votes or for other bills that have not yet come to vote. the one man of honor was the House member who called POTUS a fibber during his address. Even though everyone knew he was telling the truth it is not proper to make such assertions publicly. Goodby Senator, enjoy what the future holds and look back on your record with pride.

A 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us.

It's true that hikes like the one by WellPoint Inc. apply only to people who buy individual insurance and are unlikely to spread to the majority of Americans covered through their employers. But such hikes also hit a huge number of Americans who mostly went unmentioned in the furor – the 46 million with no insurance at all.

That's because for most people who don't get insurance through their jobs and do not qualify for government assistance, the only option is buying individual policies like the ones in WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross plan, often with high deductibles.

Raise prices, and people without insurance are even less likely to buy it – healthy people especially. Meanwhile, older and sicker customers pay more and more, running up high health bills in a shrinking pool.

That conundrum is at the heart of a disagreement that has frozen Democratic health reform efforts in Congress. Reform bills would require most of the uninsured to buy coverage, an idea many Americans detest as heavy-handed government.

But without sharing costs across the broadest cross-section of consumers and prohibiting insurers from charging people different premiums depending on their health status, the result is a scenario very much like Anthem's."

More and more businesses are continuing to drop coverage for their employees, so eventually we will all be completely at the mercy of these greedy insurance giants. When it happens to you, thank repubilcans for it.

.............and now a word from Barry and Botox SanFranNan........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................etc.!!!

Senator Bayh might get me to come back to the democratic party in 2012. I fled the party last fall to become an independent after being a straight ticket democrat since voting for JFK.

Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and all the admitted radicals in and around the party was an embarrassment to me. Plus it was clear to me that Obama's agenda to "fundamentally transform America" is taking this country to disaster.

Although I'd really like for the Republicans to take control of the Senate, I hope they don't take the presidency and congress in 2014...Things always seem to go poorly when one party, Democrat or Republican, controls the White House and both branches of congress.

A totally new direction in government is necessary --( away from the Obama spending or concentration on the wrong issues (health vs jobs / economy). He was way too anxious to "overhaul" the US, i.e. throwing out the baby with the bath water. We were in bad condition - now it's far worse, thanks to Obama, Reid, and especially overly loud and obnoxious Pelosi.

Any alternatives are superior to this Obama fiasco.
Obama can falsely blame his failures and his associates' bad images on any number of things -- he has only himself to blame.
But just wait for the "race card" to be played over and over again as a last ditch effort which will only further divide Americans.
This administration is so irresponsible they don't care about the damage they do.
Congratulations to Bayh. Whatever his motives, the "retirement" sends a message.

If Obama wants to turn this around, he is going to have to do an about-face on several issues and really straighten out his act.

The first thing Obama should do is send a letter to the Health Department in Hawaii authorizing them to release the file containing the underlying documents on his birth - there are simply too many questions out there for there to be a sealed filed in the mix.

For someone who campaigned on transparency, a sealed file just doesn't cut it.

Second, Obama has to get his own party together in Congress. - There is a fundamental misunderstanding among the liberals in Congress (and probably Obama as well) that because they hold the majorities, it follows that all the moderates agree with the liberals.

Clearly that is not the case, however, the liberals have been marching around Washington for 15 months now talking and acting as if they have majorities FOR their far left agenda - and the moderates have never been on board.

The cap-and-trade votes, besides being horrible policy, were just ill-advised for the moderates of the party.

The only thing I can say that if Obama had more experience, he would be in more of a position to be a leader of his party in Congress - he would have had more relationships in Congress.

Remember, Obama went to Washington in 2005, and instead of learning his job in the Senate and building relationships, he went on a book tour - followed quickly by preparations for a presidential campaign.

Obama NEVER really did his job as a Senator.

All these democrats are quick to dismiss this, HOWEVER IT IS SHOWING NOW.

Next Obama is going to have to have an agenda - his agenda has completely blown up -

You know what? forget it, it's over - this is too much - reasonable people gave Obama a chance and Obama blew it - now all the things everyone gave Obama a pass on are going to come back to haunt him.

It was really stupid to put an inexperienced person in the Presidency - one with no economic or business experience except for buying cocaine.

The American people have recognized that voting for a Presidential candidate because they wanted to make a statement for "racial harmony" was stupid - and now the country is suffering under an administration that has no idea what it is doing.

You wrote: "Sadly, Evan Byah is correct. Our government is dysfunctional. It is dominated by partisans on the left and right, who are far more interested in doctrinaire obedience to ideology and political gamesmanship than in working together to solve problems."

Sorry, but this is completely nuts. Until Scott Brown won in MA, the Democrats had nothing to stop them except public opinion. The GOP was numerically impotent.

Therefore, if the completely Democratic government has been "dysfunctional," it is the sole fault of the Democrats for pursuing policies that the American people reject and oppose with increasing ferocity.

It is intellectually dishonest to say "both parties" have caused the mess of the last year. The GOP has been politically irrelevant until Scott Brown's election. And he was elected, in part, to put the brake on the Democrats' spend-and-borrow madness.

The Democrats have had the power, and they abused it, and they're going to pay a deserved and very heavy price.

I understand- yet he's a fool. He wanted to be president this lasts time around.
I like him yet he's too conservative. Now I feel he doesn't have what it takes to take a stand. You make a descion to stand for something and serve, then when things get tough you run? That's what we are all dealing with these days spinles politicans on the take from public funds. very discouraging!

I understand- yet he's a fool. He wanted to be president this lasts time around.
I like him yet he's too conservative. Now I feel he doesn't have what it takes to take a stand. You make a descion to stand for something and serve, then when things get tough you run? That kit what we are all dealing with these days sinles pliticans on the take from public funds.

EVAN would not have to do this if Obama had listened to U.S. !!! ................***** SAVE SMALL BUSINESSES & JOBS.. ... ... .... ... ...President Obama: Keep COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FORECLOSURES from occurring and closing Small Businesses.....use 10% of the $787 Billion "JOBS" Bill our children will pay for; to AVOID 1930'S style, full-blown DEPRESSION!!

Bayh dropped out because Indiana is still a somewhat Republican state in which a Democrat can win if and only if he or she wins over the Independents.

Thanks to the spend-and-borrow madness of Obama and Pelosi, as well as their continuing attempts to deprive Americans of control over their own health decisions, Independents nationwide are incensed at the Democrats. They're also alarmed by Obama's clear desire to treat terrorism as mere criminality.

Bayh's departure is indicative of something the MSM wishes to ignore: the coming general collapse of the Democratic Party if it remains a vassal of the public-employee unions, trial lawyers, and the left-wing fringe.

2010 will be far more devastating for the Democrats than 1994. Sometime on the morning of Wednesday, November 3, some people in the MSM will be scratching their heads, wondering where the massive anti-Democratic tsunami came from.

And people in the Obama administration will say, "Golly, if only we had gotten our message out!"

Obama is getting what is his due! The moderates have been begging him to get off health care and move to the middle but he won't listen. Bayh has 13 million dollars he should switch parties and run against Obama in 2012 for President. He could win!!!!!!

no matter who retires, it's all up in the air...
who controls congress will be who controls the agenda and we already have seen the dems agenda...
now it's time to see what the other side has to offer...
of course they won't have the supermajority like the dems have...
so maybe notuing will get done and maybe thats what the people want...

Bad news for dems, great news for the continued destruction of the american way of life. This place is gonna make Haiti look like a super power before all is said and done. What a joke of a country we have become.

Barry accepted millions in campaign money from both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan -- and now their 2010 executive bonuses are A-OK with Barry.

2008:
Goldman Sachs $994,795
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132

2010:
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

Sadly, Evan Byah is correct. Our government is dysfunctional. It is dominated by partisans on the left and right, who are far more interested in doctrinaire obedience to ideology and political gamesmanship than in working together to solve problems. Seems like politics is all about gaining/retaining power in DC rather than actually doing something constructive while elected to represent your constituents back home. It's high time to rid both parties of the cancer that rules them.

In prepared remarks that he will give at a 2 p.m. press conference today, Bayh cites his frustration with the stalemate in Congress:

“Two weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt. The measure would have passed, but seven Republicans who had endorsed the idea instead voted ‘no’ for short-term political reasons,” he said. “Just last week, a major piece of legislation to create jobs — the public’s top priority — fell apart amid complaints from both the left and right. All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state and our nation than continued service in Congress.”

Although I don't always agree with him, Senator Bayh comes from a family that has given much to their state and country. In my book he is an honest, trustworthy patriot.

I see how it would be hard for him to serve in the corrupt bipartisan environment in Washington. Until we can clean house from the top down Obama, Reid and Pelosi will drive out the honest politicians. If they can't be bought they don't want them.

No wonder Bayh is fed up. When Bush and a GOP - controlled Congress, Dems blocked every health care reform they wanted to enact and many other bills. After the Dems regained the Congress, Dems were even more effective in demonizing and blocking Bush.

Then Obama came in and from day one showed he's the most arrogantly partisan president we've had in a long time, further poisoning the Washington environment. No wonder, then, that the GOP responded in kind, not only because Republicans are deeply offended by the Dems' partisanship, but also because the Dems have been pushing such radically hard left bills.

Payback time for the Tea Party, independents and moderate Republicans. How long can Reid and Durban lead the Senate? Will Pelosi survive as the Speaker?

Rational Democrats like Bayh must be disillusioned with the direction that liberal/radical Democrats have taken his party. Ex-Democrats, and there will be an increasing number of us after November, realize sooner or later that liberalism is simply socialism light, ie more government programs and control of our lives and high taxes. Obama got elected because he very successfully masked his radicalism with high flown rhetoric that spoke to Americans' hunger for a declaration of peace in the partisan battles. He viewed his election, however, as a victory of the left over "the forces of reaction." "Never let a crisis go to waste," became the cynical watchword of the
men behind Obama who pull his strings. The people are now fully awake- better late than never.

For the good of everything that is rational... can we get Dove369 to stop posting. My how he/she/it wears his/her/its idiocy for all to see.
-------------------------------------
GOT DARNIT IF WE COULD PUT UP WITH SARA PALIN RANTS

Congratulations to ALL the good ol' boys and gals who step aside and let some younger people try to save our Republic. They should pair up, one Democrat and one Republican and hold joint press conferences glorifying their glory days of partisan jousting. I see Hatch-Leahy, Dodd-Shelby, Sessions-Schumer and best of all Reid-McConnell. Unfortunately I can't find Dems to pair up with Bunning, Lieberman, Inhofe or for that matter Coburn.

shipfreakbo:I hope you repubs didn't forget the GOP has 14 representatives retiring, just a little reminder before senility sets in
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Or you better check the facts again and thus you would see that though they may have retired, the are...*ahem* RUNNING FOR HIGHER OFFICE

Bayh is a good man but he is doomed because America is fed up with those radicals that have taken over the Democratic party - Pelosi, Reid, Dean, Frank,Dodd, Brazile and of course Kenyan born Barry. Everything associated with the radical DNC is doomed. Payback for what they did to Hillary. Divine intervention.

This is an explosive rebuke of the highly partisan Obama, Reid and Pelosi. Their arrogant partisanship forced Republicans in the House and Senate to stand firmly against their extremism, making it impossible for people like Bayh to have a say about anything.

Will Obama, Reid and Pelosi get the message? Doubt it. They'll continue to spin big time. Now the GOP has a chance to win 10 seats and regain control of the Senate and House. Amazing.
www.businessword.com.

If Bayh had announced this a month ago, I would have said this is great news! Bayh might as well be a republican anyway. He voted for the health-care plan, but only after holding it up and dumbing it down. He did the same with the Stimulus. He is a coward who represents his contributors and not his constituents.
The only reason its bad news now, is that we dont have a candidate ready to run for his seat, and we just lost a month of campaign time. But that's not unlike Bayh either. Screwing the party is his M.O. Thanks Evan, you spineless coward. I'm glad i didn't vote for you last time!

As we've been witnessing, the democratic process is broken in America and movement conservatism has corrupted our ability to govern. In any party there usually are different factions within that party. Some might be more moderate than others, but when a party wins a mandate in a general election they are usually allowed to govern.

That doesn't apply when Republicans are out of power. Yes, we have terrible politicians manning the Democratic Congress, but it's almost unprecedented when one party just votes no, so that even if you have a strong majority in the Senate, one Senator from the other side has the power to stop all legislation. So even if you're in a huge minority, the filibuster can sink legislation or hold up personal appointments every time.

The media are feckless and ineffective. They love the fight game and are more interested in ratings and clashing personalities than they are in actually reporting the news. So they allow a minority party that was soundly trounced in two elections (2006,2008) to maintain their defiance to the American people. And then they blame it on the party differences within the Democratic Party.

And we can't forget the conservative media that drives their narratives to millions of people a day. Fox News and AM talk radio do have a huge influence on the American people and the politicians in Congress, and they should never be ignored.

Our old pal Steve Benen writes a nice lengthy post on this, and his solutions are ideas that the blogosphere has been touting the entire time to break the logjam.

* Start using the phrase "up-or-down vote" all the time.

* Take advantage of every opportunity. Using reconciliation as much as humanly possible should be a no-brainer. The "nuclear option" should be put on the table, too. Endorse Harkin/Shaheen. Scour the rules and procedural minutiae and figure out if Republicans who want to filibuster can't be forced to literally do so. Search for GOP statesmen -- Lugar? -- and ask if they're really willing to destroy the workings of the United States Senate.

* Go on the offensive. Organize rallies in Maine and explain that Olympia Snowe, by endorsing her party's obstructionism, is single-handedly responsible for the fact that Congress can't function, and it's within her power to put things right and let key bills get up-or-down votes.

* Give voters who elected Democrats something to be excited about. Voters will be impressed with accomplishments, so maybe it'd be wise to give them some. Dems can start by passing the damn health care reform package.

So where is he heading? Eli Lilly? Wellpoint? PHRMA? As a lobbyist he will be doing the same damage to the country he did as a Senator because let’s face it- it isn’t much of a role change from what he and his wife are doing now.

Lack of comity seems to be taking a toll. Wonder when the leadership of both parties will realize that there needs to be some goodwill and cooperation to not only pass bills, but to encourage their legislators to want to remain in office? Beating members into submission to pass legislation to suit one party may not be conducive to keeping experienced legislators, of either party, who know there are other ways to achieve goals for the good of the country.

Evan: We will see you in 3 years in the White House or 7 years in the Senate ... ... ... ... ... President Obama: Keep COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FORECLOSURES from occuring and closing Small Businesses.....use 10% of the $787 Billion "JOBS" Bill our children will pay for; to AVOID 1930'S style, full-blown DEPRESSION !

what the Rs and baggers are fighting for -- the right of insurers to sodomize americans:

'Anthem Blue Cross' proposed 39 percent rate increases in California have become a new rallying point for the Obama administration and Democrats eager to get health care reform across the finish line.

The issue gives President Obama and Democrats a new example to help drive home the need to fix the health care system, and they won't be letting up any time soon, administration and Congressional sources tell TPMDC.

There will be Congressional hearings this month and Obama has held it up as an example.

I asked Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius about WellPoint's response to questions about the increases, which you can read here.

She told me she has "some degree of skepticism" about a company with profits of $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter alone needing to impose rate hikes on 800,000 customers "so they can keep their profit margins going."

She added that WellPoint's two top executives were paid just under $10 million each in salary.

"There are a number of underlying questions about what is going on," Sebelius said.

I don't know if anyone caught the comments over the weekend about how the government issued instructions over the past Washington D.C. snowfall that all non-essential personnel were to stay home. 240,000 stayed home.....out of 300,000.

And Chris when are you going to start bringing real news and real information to the American people?

You can start by running some "Democrat Brand" stories........

Where would the Democrat Party be without their propaganda wing..... our liberal/progressive MSM wolfpack press...... yeah lets see how this "pack" lies and misleads the American people on this "moderate" giving up on his new Left-Wing Party..........how sad.

Obama is proving to be the best thing that has happened to the GOP since......Jimmah!!! Bout every 30 years enough youngsters grow up to vote who have never seen the liberals do their thing, and we wind up electing a whack job like Obama. Couple of years, they figure it out and it's back to Conservatives for another 30 years of prosperity. Cliton was a rockafeller republican folks!

GOING AROUND HOLLOWING ABOUT FISCAL SPENDING WITH YOUR OWN PARTY WHILE HOVERING IN THE CORNER AND VOTING YES UNDER THAT "INEPT" BUSH SPENDING LIKE A DRUNK SAILOR ERA....DOES NOT MAKE YOU PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL...

Evan Bayh is leaving because he was bought and paid for by Wellpoint the largest Insurance provider in our country. He supported the fradulent HC bill because it extended health care for millions of Americans and Wellpoint would be providing health care for these uninsured Americans.
Truth has power in itself. Law Makers bought and paid for by corporate interest will be replaced with candidates guided by a moral compass.

Obama is a parisan idealogue. While an eloquent reader, a LEADER he is not. His new "tactic" will be to go around the country in "campaign mode" b/c he's never managed anything let alone been an exec. He won the election...now stay in DC & lead (and reel Harry & Nancy in to help your prospects at any real bipartisanship). Do NOT waste our tax $ campaigning & holding town halls...it's no longer 2008 Barack.

The republican's mantra of lowering taxes to strengthen the economy doesn't work. Bush cut taxes and look at the disaster the created. His tax cut added $1.4 trillion to the deficit. That and his minorty housing funding.

This is another guaranteed GOP Senate seat now, as Bayh was already in trouble, but now the seat is the GOP's. The REpublicans are getting closer and closer to majority control of both house on Capitol Hill.....all becuase of Obama, Pelosi, & Reid.

The only downside here is that Bayh could be a formidable foe for the REpublicans in the 2012 Genreal election for President - not the easy pushover Obama will be.

I figured there'd be someone that brought up Rush eventually. But, I do want to say that he's very, very wrong that the stimulus isn't working. I help administor almost 6 million dollars in stim money in a local community, and I've seen how it saves and creates jobs. Everyone says it's not working because unemployment is at 10%...but can you imagine how much higher it would be without the stim money injecting revenue into local buisnesses?

Bad news for the hated Obama is good news for Dick Cheeney. I don't get this visceral loathing of the current President of the United States unless it is about his "foreign" look and academic demeanor. He shore doesn't come off as one of the boys. So, what is he? "Obviously" he's a Muslim AND a Marxist Socialist. Also a Negro. Can't have that. Isn't usual in Your America. Can't play ball with one of those. Solution? Simply obstruct, obstruct, obstruct until a True Fascist can be elected. The tea baggers could elect one their own, enact repeal of every sort of social legislation that they say they hate, repeal the income tax, deploy Christian warriors all over the globe (Iran, North Korea first), make a mess of things and never be called to task for it. At the very least they could claim they got "their" country back. Facts and logic do not persuade. The Good Book persuades. God help us.

pcphase1: It's hard to ask Democratic legislators to fight for legislation the majority of Americans (or more specifically, a majority of those who could vote for or against them) do not support. "Fighting" for Obamacare, cap & trade and the myriad of other unpopular legislation the liberals want is why they are in their current predicament.

This is another guaranteed GOP Senate seat now, as Bayh was already in trouble, but now the seat is the GOP's. The REpublicans are getting closer and closer to majority control of both house on Capitol Hill.....all becuase of Obama, Pelosi, & Reid.

“…there are all of these Democrat resignations and retirements, and the Democrats are retiring, make no mistake about it, because Barack Obama is destroying his party. Exactly as I predicted on this program many, many moons ago. They are retiring because he's failed. If Obama's policies were succeeding there wouldn't be any retirement, they'd all be out there trying to break Senator Byrd's length of service record. But they're running for the hills, a lot of them, governors, gubernatorial candidates, senators, members of the House. These Democrats drank the Obama Kool-Aid and they're committing political suicide. Some are just dropping out sooner than others. But Obamacare, cap and trade, job killers, the stimulus bill is not working, the private sector is being destroyed.”

As a registered Democrat, these cowardly Democrats (Bayh, Dorgan, Snyder, etc...) make me sick. The sight of a tough race, or a souring environment, of reorganized Republicans, or Tea Partiers, and they run for the hills. Fine by me.

I want Congressional representatives of both parties to have the balls to actually fight for something, say, the American people? To have an honest discussion about what is best, how to do it, you fight, someone wins, and you actually get something done.

Money, media, and power are the only things that determine whether or not you get to Congress anymore, I don't care what party you say you belong to. I'm worried about our future. A country where governing is done buy such corrupt people who don't want to govern, they want to be rich and powerful, is a country without much of a future.

But President Spendthrift makes even Dubya look like Ebenezer Scrooge.

If you wonder why the economy is languishing it is because the entrepreneurial class is on hiatus until they know the rules of the game and how best to proceed. All they see now are years and years of government interference and taxation. That, blarsen, is definitely bad for business.

Understand this, leftists, the problem IS the federal government. They will NOT be the solution. Government poisons everything it touches.

So all the RATS are jumping ship. These traitors have ruined our country. They have robbed Social Security to cover their fiscal irresponsibility. They have passed laws and entitlements that can not be sustained. They have run up such a huge budget deficet that in a few short years the interest alone will be almost 80% of the total revenue collected by the Treasury. 80 FRIGGING PERCENT!!!! It's not the Dumbocrats. It's not the Repugnanticans. It is all of them. Collectively, they have brought this country to the very brink of collapse all the while they jet set around on the tax payers dime. They are Traitors by defination....

So all the RATS are jumping ship. These traitors have ruined our country. They have robbed Social Security to cover their fiscal irresponsibility. They have passed laws and entitlements that can not be sustained. They have run up such a huge budget deficet that in a few short years the interest alone will be almost 80% of the total revenue collected by the Treasury. 80 FRIGGING PERCENT!!!! It's not the Dumbocrats. It's not the Repugnanticans. It is all of them. Collectively, they have brought this country to the very brink of collapse all the while they jet set around on the tax payers dime. They are Traitors by defination....

A House divided against itself cannot stand. Obama has brought this country to the brink of financial collapse. He is arrogant, hubris filled and stubborn. He is the most divisive president in history.

The problem with Dims is they believe fanciful leftist polls like Daily Kos. Like the one that told you that Evan Bay was way ahead. Clearly Bayh's own internal polling told him a far different story.

Let me remind you that Daily Kos poll in Massachusetts said the Scott Brown - Marsha Coakley race was "a tie" whereas every other pollster had Brown winning by from 6 to 10 points. We all know the outcome of course as SENATOR Scott Brown (R-MA) is now in the senate.

The only true measure of a pollster is accuracy and that puts Daily Kos at the very bottom of the barrel.

Only Democrats can look at the results in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachussetts and now the retirement of Bayh in Indiana as some kind of cautionary tale for Republicans.

Yes there's a lot of anti-incumbent sentiment but the pushback by the voters is because of President Pants-On-Fire's agenda. It's not because President Narcissus hasn't been on TV enough or explained his "health"care bill enough. It's because we've seen it, read it and it's just more of the same.

Not change, not hope, just more government...

And that, my friends, is what most people are sick to death of; overweaning government

Just think who wants to put up with this crap? If you read Posts from the repub retards you can get an idea of why so many are giving it up. I suspect Obama will only make it one term as well. The Rush Limbaugh Lemmings goal is to force this country into a state of anarchy which will soon be accomplished by their tactics. Its irony will be those with most to lose will than lose the most.

the political and media class just don't understand the wave that will sweep democrats out of power in 2010. Please keep calling the tea party "tea baggers" , please keep olberman and maddow on the air, please keep explaining the "nuances " behind the Obama admin fiscal incompetance.

As the media loses it's credibility daily with us poor unwashed in the hinterlands, and Obama leads his party off a cliff, a new generation of fiscal conservative leadership is emerging that will bring us back to sanity.

Please look up Chris Christie's budget speech to the NJ legislature...a true chief executive with courage to take on the corrupt liberal special interests that is bankrupting his state

I hope you repubs didn't forget the GOP has 14 representatives retiring, just a little reminder before senility sets in. I do find it strange we have so many leaving in both parties, could be a good sign for all of us.

Posted by: shipfreakbo214

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Considering that a majority of people in the country would favor throwing all of Congress out and electing all new people, maybe all of the representatives and senators will run for the hills!

The fourteen Republican retirements don't have the Republican leadership too worried, though. Most are in reliably Republican districts, and as long as the election climate is favorable to Republicans, it will be hard to lose those seats. The Democratic retirements, on the other hand, put a lot more seats into actual play come November, and Bayh's Senate seat is one of those that suddenly becomes very competitive with Bayh no longer running. Democrats may rue this retirement, especially if it costs them a majority in the Senate. That's still a long shot, but it's much closer to the realm of possibility with Bayh retiring.

Obama is single-handedly destroying the Democratic Party...well, he does have lots of help from Reid & Pelosi...but the poll results below are 100% Obama.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17 (see trends).

This did not happen overnight folks- this partisan climate began with NEWT- now you see him courting the LATINOS with his Spanish Twitter account!
Wonder why Obama got to Senate and knew he had to leave-

Look at the state of our country!

I know- Americans like to hear how GREAT the USA is!

Go shop!

In the meantime- The New GLOBAL Economic Power- BRIC

BRIC: BRAZIL-RUSSIA-INDIA-CHINA

Missing an 'A'- America!

But Americans are too stupid!

We are so far behind- yet still hear the DUMB DOWN from the GOP-

They are in one GEAR- REVERSE!

BRIC has no REVERSE GEAR!

ONE MORE TIME FOR THE Murdoch crowd-

BRIC- BRAZIL, RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA

GOP had a problem with President Obama in Copenhagen - When he "burst into a meeting of the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian leaders, according to senior administration officials. Mr. Obama said he did not want them negotiating in secret."

The Obama Plan
What is Obama trying to do with all this spending? He is trying to cause a collapse. Why would he cause a collapse? A collapse is the only way that you could stage a massive takeover of the united states. He has already built the frame work for this takeover. So what is holding him up. The Health Care bill is a key part in causing this collapse. The amount of money that will be required to fund the Health Care bill is a key player. If the Health Care bill passes; Then other planned bills will complete the collapse process. This is why I have called on every single American to do whatever is in their means to stop this takeover. May GOD walk with you and protect you in your journey to save America. The Anti-Christ is here and his name is Obama.

Bayh was a shoo-in for re-election, even in a tough climate for Democrats, even in a state where Republicans might otherwise have a chance. With Bayh out, now they do have a chance.

And by my reckoning, this seat ought to jump near the top of the Fix's line, and suddenly Republicans have reasonable chances at winning 7-9 Senate seats away from Democrats come November. This isn't to say that they will win this many, but I'd say that their odds in each of those individual races is better than, say, a Republican picking up Ted Kennedy's seat in a special election.

I have to wonder what prompted this decision from Bayh. I mean, if he had another office in mind, it would make sense. If he were facing a big scandal, it would make sense. If he were facing a likely loss in November, it would make sense. But simply to retire? It seems odd, and Democratic leadership cannot be happy about this right now.

I hope you repubs didn't forget the GOP has 14 representatives retiring, just a little reminder before senility sets in. I do find it strange we have so many leaving in both parties, could be a good sign for all of us.

Most Libtards just don't get it. The American people are tired of the far left loonies for trying to exact revenge on the country for being out of power for 8 years.
Look for Sen. Bayh to become Gov. Bayh of the great state of Indiana. His moderate views allow him to consolidate his power base in Indiana and then make a run for the presisdency. Don't be surprised at a
Bayh/Palin or Bayh/Bachman ticket down the road. The winds of change are upon us, and the far left/far right are about to be blown away!!!!!

One more nail in the coffin for liberalism, though Bayh has served his people well as a moderate. If he decides to run in 2012, Obama would have to concede by the 1st of April. Reid is gone in November, and Pelosi will lose the speaker position, and no other liberal will be given a chance at that position ever again, so liberalism gets another hard shot to the head. With Phil Jones agreeing "No Statistically Significant Global Warming since 1995", and the data for the "Hockey Stick Graph" had been lost. Will the NYT ever print a story about the scam, hoax, fraud, of global warming. Don't worry, Liberals will find another cause to lose.

I'm sure he'll be making the big money somewhere. That's my first reaction to this spate of retirements. Big money without conscience, without media scrutiny (like there's much of that)without accountability. What a sad self-serving group of leaders we have in America. Dem or Rep, they all served the same master.

Hardly a case of Bayh retiring because he was going to be "swept out of office." If he was ahead 20% in the polls there is something else going on. My guess is that we wil find out about a family or personal illness.

As for those cheering the prospects of republicons taking either house of congress....do you not remember 13 months ago? Do you not see first hand the devestation of conservative ideology? Are you really that blind? Even in the minority rpublicons are doing their level best to make your life worse, and you want them in control?

"What a chickensh-t! He saw that he was going to get his ass kicked in the election and decided to bow out."

By who? Dan Coats? His volunteers were still trying to get signatures in the Lowe's parking lot this weekend in Indianapolis just so he can be on the ballot. I know because I refused to sign it.

Look, there's nothing Hoosiers hate worse than a poseur. Dan coats may have been a representative here for a while but he bailed out of IN a long time ago. Buying a house on North New Jersey st. in Indy isn't going to give him local credibility, especially not across the entire state.

Regardless, whoever ends up as the Dem nominee can look forward to millions of $$ worth of ads showing that pathetic hack Dan Coats talking about how he prefers North Carolina to Indiana, lists of his lobbying clients, etc.

Given all the populist rhetoric coming from the GOOP these days, running a retread DC insider hack like Coats is pathetic.

One worry - Bayh is now free from having to deal with his constituents. He no longer needs to care what Indiana thinks about his votes on health care, etc. Has he possibly been promised a major administrative position in the near future?

Bayh will not run for president. He has just made himself an enemy to Democrats and he will have zero support from anyone. Dems will not vote for him because he is too far right, Rs will not vote fo himn because he is not insane.

While it may disappoint some to see Bayh retire, the equation in Congress is altered only slightly. In the present environment, it would appear that Bayh was not about to be a force for the greater success of government. He may well have come under strong competition in the fall and lost, so now he takes his big retirement and leaves. To the nation it will mean little, but to his state there may be some concern. After all, as Tip O'Neal said, all politics is local.

This is a shock and not good. But he was far ahead in the polls and so there is something else going on here... woman?

On the lighter side:

'Samuel Wurzelbacher, the man better known to America as Joe The Plumber, is backing away from the man who made him the C-list celebrity he is today, Sen. John McCain. In an interview with Pennsylvania public radio reporter Scott Detrow over the weekend, Wurzelbacher lashed out at McCain, who turned Wurzelbacher into the mascot of his 2008 presidential campaign.

"I don't owe him sh*t," Wurzelbacher told the Detrow. "He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it."

Wurzelbacher also told Detrow he's no longer a fan of Sarah Palin because she's endorsing McCain's reelection bid in Arizona. Wurzelbacher, who's become an ardent support of the tea party movement and went to Pennsylvania to endorse a conservative Republican's gubernatorial bid, told a crowd of conservatives he was upset with McCain because he's "a career politician."

(Speaking of careers and politics, as Christina reported last month, Wurzelbacher charges a fee to campaigns for public endorsements like the one he made in Pennsylvania.)

"McCain was trying to use me," Wurzelbacher told Detrow after the appearance. "I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy."

Per Rasmussen Bayh is trailing or within the margin of error against Pence (who says he wont run 47/44 Pence) and Hostelter (41/44 Bayh) respectively. There is no 20 point lead in any reputable poll. He knows he will lose this year and is bowing out until he can run again without the Obama weight around his neck.

How soon before Senator bayh surfaces as a lobbyist ?
Similar to Mrs. Palin, a lot of these folks feel like they have given years of public service with little to show , so they are going to capitalize and trade their influence in for dollars.

This was unexpected.
I wonder if Bayh is looking at making a move in address in three years? Saying that he still wants to serve America but not in Congress makes me think that he may try to run as a moderate Democrat in 2012. If he thinks this may work then he is getting some really bad advice IMO.

Would it kill you to actually SAY Bayh is a Democrat, even though the second part of the first sentence seems to infer it? If this had been a Republican choosing not to run again, you first sentence, I assure you, would have been "[State] Republican Sen. [name] will not run for re-election. . ."

Wow, from being a coinflip to be Obama's VP to ending his political career. I wonder what's going on. He was actually looking pretty good to win this year. In a state like Indiana, this is real bad news for Dems.